From the Shadows, Part I
by Rand42
Summary: Steven and Connie explore the Burning Room and end up inadvertently releasing something potentially very dangerous.
1. The Burning Room

"You two enjoy your day, we'll be back by tomorrow morning." Pearl said to Steven and Connie as the three gem warriors stepped onto the platform in the middle of their home.

"But we want to go with you guys!" shouted the young man while Connie nodded her head by his side "I can bubble and use my shield! Connie's really good with a sword now! We can handle ourselves!"

"Steven…" Garnet began, pausing for a moment to look down at the boy with the puppy-dog eyes "…no." she finished, along with an immediate activation of the warp pad.

The young boy simply stood there with his mouth agape, staring at the light fading. His face slowly began to form into a defeated look of disappointment as he looked back to Connie who instead simply shrugged and smiled. Connie had told him that she wanted to share in the experience of going on a mission with the Gems and in his naivety he actually thought that Garnet, Amethyst and Perl would allow for the tag along. They said nothing when his dad and Connie joined them in dealing with the whole "missing oceans" mess but it seemed like he had hoped for too much. The worst part was the feeling of having disappointed Connie.

"It's OK Steven. We can do lots of other fun things." Connie spoke softly with a genuine smile on her lips "I brought a book about gems, wanna read it?" she asked while shuffling inside her backpack and taking out a thick book with several gems on the cover.

For a moment, Steven simply stared at the cover of the book, but then something seemed to click inside his mind "That's it! I know what we can do." he shouted, grabbing Connie's hand and pulling her toward the door to the temple.

"Steven! Wait! Where are we going!? Your mom's room again?" the girl asked confused.

"Yes! No! I mean…I want to show you something, but we need to go through the room first!" the boy said filled with glee as the pink gem on the door began to glow and the entrance revealed itself to them.

The two kids ran aimlessly around the pink cloud filled room. From Steven's description to her, the two had to look for a crystalline pipe that went into the lower levels. After a while of searching, it was Connie who had the idea of Steven actually asking the room to reveal the pipe to them. With a smack to his own forehead, Steven asked for it and immediately the clouds began to shift, parting and revealing the pipe coming down from the sky and into a hole. Without skipping a beat, the young man jumped on the pipe and began sliding down, calling out to Connie to do the same as his voice began to fade. With a nod, the girl closed her eyes and grabbed a hold of the pipe, following her friend.

Connie had felt herself stop eventually, but kept holding on to the pipe, not wanting to risk letting go and falling to her death on what she knew only as a bottomless pit. It was only when Steven called out to her that she finally gained the courage to open her eyes and look around. The two of them were in a hot room with a red hue all around them. At the center of the room was what seemed like a pit of burning coals, which provided the light but most striking were the things that floated above her head. Remaining there in air were several pink bubbles with gems inside.

"This place is amazing…" Connie said, her eyes sparkling as she looked over every gem "Look! There's the gem from that worm thing!" her finger rose toward one of the bubbles closer to the ground which contained the red and white gem of the worm monster they fought when they first became friends.

"No!" Steven suddenly shouted, stopping Connie from touching the bubble "Don't touch the bubbles! If they break then the gems might regenerate and you never know what might come out."

"You told me they are gems too right? Like the Crystal gems? So why are they monsters?" Connie asked, her hand already flipping through her book on gems.

"They told me these gems are corrupted." Steven answered "Once a gem becomes corrupted, they turn into a monster. We're looking for a way to get them back to normal."

"Can't you heal them with your spit or your mother's fountain?"

"Nah, doesn't seem to work like that." he answered, with a disappointed look on his face.

"Is that a bag of chaps?" Connie suddenly pointed out, a finger aimed toward the bubble with a bag of chaps inside, right next to another bubble with a green orb.

"Yea! That's Centipeetle's!" he shouted excitedly while running toward bubbles and gently cupping his hands under the one with the green gem.

"Come again?" she asked, confused.

"She's my monster buddy. I tried to tame her a while back but it didn't work out that well." he paused for a moment, bringing down the bubble and staring at it with a smile and stars in his eyes "But she saved my life, so I think I finally go through to her." his eyes moved up and suddenly widened when they see Connie trip as she walked toward him.

The young girl's shoe was caught on a tile and stumbled forward. Steven quickly rushed forward, lifting the bubble with the green gem with one hand while grabbing Connie with the other. The pink bubble pressed again another above their heads as Steven focused on keeping Connie from landing on her face. Using Steven as her support, she managed to avoid falling to the ground but both of them immediately look up when they hear a popping sound.

A green sphere fell next to them while Steven's eye briefly caught something black drop right between him and Connie, however only the sound of the green gem hitting the floor could be heard. When Steven looked down, the only things his eyes could catch were their feet and shadows. Immediately he looked back toward the green orb. Nothing happened.

"Huh…probably still regenerating." Steven said with a frown as he picked the darkened gem up in his hands "Shame, I wanted her to meet my first friend." his head turned when he felt a hand on his shoulder and saw Connie smiling, he smiled back and rebubbled the green gem "I'll see you later." and with a whisper he pushed the bubbled back next to the bag of chaps.

The rest of the day was spent cataloging the different gems with the help of Connie's book. The two kids walked around the room, pointing out the large variety of gems they could find and writing it all down on a list. Unfortunately their fun was cut short when the Crystal Gems arrived earlier than anticipated. Connie was sent home soon after while Steven spent a few hours listening to Pearl ramble on about how dangerous it was to take Connie there and how they could have freed a dangerous gem monster.


	2. Super Steven!

Grounded for a week had been Garnet's punishment for entering the temple with Connie, and considering his previous had involved no TV for what was practically an eternity, this wasn't that bad. Of course, for a boy like Steven the "It's not so bad" phase quickly died out after the first few hours of sitting on his bed. It wasn't so much the fact that he had nothing to do in his room but more to do with the fact that he was forbidden to leave even if he wanted to. Thus, he just sat there on his bed…reading the book on gems that Connie had lent him.

"Peeaaarrlll! The book says you represent modesty, purity and beauty!" he shouted down from the upper floor to the gem washing dishes in the kitchen.

"That's sweet Steven." Pearl calmly responded with a slight blue blush on her cheeks.

"Modest!? Ahahaha! Steven, you're a riot!" Amethyst's laughs suddenly erupted from right bellow Steven's bed, where the couches were.

"Amethyst!" the beak nosed gem growled angrily.

"It also says you're organic!" the boy's shout was soon followed by the sound of a plate crashing against the floor and even louder laughter from the purple gem.

"Wha? Steven! Stop reading that book!" Pearl ordered angrily "Stop laughing Amethyst!"

"This is priceless! Keep going Steven!" Amethyst shouted, countering Pearl's command.

Steven barely paid attention to the two downstairs, choosing instead to flip the book to another section "Wow! Amethyst, you can heal headaches and backaches!?" the boy suddenly exclaimed with stars in his eyes.

"Huh?" Amethyst laughter stopped as only confusion was written on her face.

"No Steven, Amethyst causes headaches." Pearl commented with a frown toward the purple gem.

"What? You're one to talk, Miss Everything-has-to-be-perfect-all-the-time!" she shouted as she jumped off the couch.

"At least I know where everything is, I doubt you can find anything in that giant mess you call a room!"

"Hey! I happen to like my mess!"

As they argued with each other, the two gems moved closer and closer, their angry faces eventually becoming merely inches apart. As their gems began to glow, the fight was cut-short by Garnet's arrival through the warp-pad.

"You two, enough. We have a mission." their leader said in an aloof tone "Let's go."

The two gems growled at each other for a few moments, before quickly snapping their heads away with a loud humph. As they made their way to the large pedestal, Steven's voice was heard once more.

"Garnet! It says you're strength, bravery and determination! Cool!" stars once again cloud be seen in his eyes as his head popped down from the edge to look at the departing gems.

Garnet paused for a moment, a cool smile on her lips as she looked up "Yup, that's me." she simply said, activating the warp.

"Steven, no leaving the house! You're still grounded!" Pearl shouted as the gems vanished.

Not a split second after the gems were gone, a sudden quake shook the entire house, nearly causing Steven to drop from the edge. The earthquake was incredibly short but powerful. A moment later, another one hit with much more intensity. Steven rushed to one of the windows to see if anything was causing the earthquakes, but saw nothing.

"What's going on?" he mumbles to himself inquisitively.

Suddenly, as if prompted by his question, something crashed through the window, destroying not just the glass but the frame and part of the wall as well. Had Steven's bubble not activated almost on instinct he would have likely been crushed, but instead was thrown through an opposite window and landed on the beach. As the bubble remained activated, Steven stood up, his eyes spinning as if the world was dancing around him.

As Steven's vision began to refocus, he finally saw what had attacked him. Standing on the roof of the house was a giant six legged lizard like creature. The beast was pale green throughout its body, with the exception of the gem on the back of its enormous head, a square deep green gem. The monster jerked its head up and Steven could see its long and tick tongue retract from the hole in the house. Right after the tongue returned inside its mouth, the monster's eyes began looking in different directions, like a chameleon until they stopped on Steven.

"Not good!" the boy shouted as he tried deactivated his bubble and started running in the opposite direction.

The monster immediately jumped, soaring through the air until its suction cup like feet attached to the side of the cliff. Its legs began vibrating and the ground began to shake like before. The power of the earthquake was much stronger than the ones from before, this time causing Steven to lose his balance and fall.

As the boy lay on the sand, looking up at the monster, the gem creature opened its mouth again and revealed the tip of its long tongue. Steven was stunned when he saw that the tongue began to split in half, revealing another mouth on it. The tongue-mouth shot toward the boy, but was stopped by his rushed pink bubble. The force of the impact half buried the bubble in the sand, but the tongue's teeth could not pierce it. No soon did the tongue retract, did it smash again against Steven's bubble. The process was repeated four more times until cracks began to form on the surface of the pink sphere.

I gotta use the shield! Come on! The boy thought as the next strike completely shattered the bubble, sending the boy flying back a few feet. With sweat trickling down his brow, he watched as the gem monster reeled in its tongue for a final attack. His thoughts were focused on his shield, closing his eyes the moment he saw the tongue with an open maw shoot toward him.

Steven felt nothing, literally. He didn't feel any pain from the impact of the tongue or the vibrations of the shield receiving the force of the blow, neither did he feel the sand beneath his feet. The young half-gem opened his eyes and saw the sand, several feet below him. His body was rising into the sky. He could see the spot he had been previously, directly under him, with a tongue buried in the sand.

"Why am I up here?" he asked himself, right before gravity took over and he began to descend "Aaaaahh!" he screamed, knowing that a fall from such a great height, even into sand, would be lethal.

Steven's arms began flapping by his sides, picturing Lapis's water wings like the mental image would allow him to fly better. The act achieved no results and he was soon about to reach the ground. Then suddenly…he landed on his feet, on top of the sand without any injury. Steven barely felt his feet make contact with the sand. Confused, he looked up at the gem monster and saw it ready another attack with the tongue.

As the tongue was released, Steven's body seemed to react on instinct and jumped to the side, easily avoiding the attack. The monster repeated the assault over and over again, but each and every time Steven would dodge to the side, duck or jump over the tongue with ease.

Eyes in his eyes, standing on top of the tongue, Steven couldn't help but raise his arms and shout "How am I doing this!? This is awesome!"

Before the tongue could retract again, Steven began a sudden charge forward and up the tongue. His body was moving faster than ever, it reminded him of the time he had been pulled by Sapphire with everything just passing by him in a blur. As he reached the mouth, the monster tried to bite him with its toothless mouth but he merely flipped through the air and landed on top of the monster's head.

"Whohoo! Super jumping! Super speed!" Steven shouted, forgetting were he stood.

The monster's legs began to vibrate again, this time with even more ferocity and shaking the whole area. Steven could hear parts of the cliff and the giant statue being damaged from the vibrations. The boy had managed to hold on and keep from being thrown off, but the monster's earthquake seemed to last far longer than the previous ones.

"Wait…Super strength!" he shouted, his voice distorted from the vibrations.

The boy pulled back his arm, balling his hand into a fist. His vision was blurred from the vibration and he was focusing on the monster's head, thus he failed to notice his arm suddenly become enveloped in darkness, turning completely black. When he brought down the fist, connection with the monster's head, right above the square gem, the monster suddenly detached from the cliff and shot toward the sand bellow with great force. The impact with the ground was so strong that it immediately vanished in a puff of smoke.

Steven landed, from another high drop, right above the green gem. With his arms raised in victory, the young boy proclaimed "I am Super Steven!" with a loud bellow and triumphant laughter.

"Steven!" Pearl's distressed voice suddenly called out from inside the house.

"Super Steven!" the boy corrected her with glee.

"What happened to the house!?" Pearl screamed as she rushed to the hole in the wall and saw him standing in the beach.

"Oh…" his arms dropped as he stared blankly up at the gems "I can explain!" Steven shouted as he began running toward the house.

As he ran away, the boy suddenly remembered that he had to bubble the corrupted gem. As he turned around to look at where it had been, the gem was gone.


	3. Believe in Steven

"Are you alright!?" the thin gem shouted with an overly worried tone as she grabbed the young boy's shoulders.

"Yeah, I'm fine! I'm more than fine! You guys should have seen me!" Steven shouted full of glee while flailing his arms in the air.

"Look at all these scratches on your arms! Oh no, your face!" Pearl ignored the excited boy as she checked his body for every single scratch and bruise she could find "What happened to you? How did you get this roughed up!?" her voice sounded like it was filled with mix of desperation and worry.

Before the boy could respond, Garnet's hands rested on Pearl's shoulders in an attempt to calm down the overprotective gem "Pearl, let Steven speak. I'm sure there's a good reason for this mess." she spoke calmly, causing Pearl to relax and release the boy.

"Rough party, Steven?" Amethyst added with a laugh.

"Better! When you guys left, a gem-monster attacked!" his words made all three gems tense up and draw their weapons, looking around for the beast "Wow! Wow! Wait! It's ok, I beat it!" Steven added, grabbing Garnet's gauntlet.

The three gems looked at each other in confusion and then directed their attention to Steven. There was no way the boy could have beaten a gem monster by himself, or at least it was highly unlikely. Steven did master his bubble power and was better at summoning his shield, but aside from protecting himself there was little he could do to a corrupted gem. Yet his eyes showed no falsehood, quite the contrary.

"Did…did Lion help you defeat it? Where is it?" Pearl timidly asked as they put away their weapons.

"What? No, I did it all by myself! I'm Super Steven now!" he proclaimed with a proud smile on his face.

"Super…Steven?" Amethyst was as confused as the rest of them but was the only one to repeat the title.

"Yeah! I'm super strong and fast now! You guy should have seen me dodge and punch the monster!" he started to swing his fists around and ending in a triumphant pose full of excitement in his eyes.

"You punched the monster and defeated it?" Garnet asked while Pearl snapped her head around, confused and having a hard time registering the boy's words.

"Hmm, yes? It attacked me and caused these big holes. When my bubble couldn't take its attacks anymore I kind of started dodging it." he paused for a moment, looking around at their faces and starting to grow a little unsure of himself "Then I ran up its tongue and punched it. It even poofed!"

"Oh yea? Then where's the gem?" Amethyst called him out, causing the young boy to jump.

"Shoot! I forgot to bubble it!" he said turning toward the hole but was held back by Garnet.

"I'll go look for it. Pearl, see to his wounds. Amethyst, go have a look around." the tallest crystal gem said as she jumped out of the hole.

Steven couldn't help but frown at Garnet's words. It wasn't that he wanted to be the one to bubble it, what bothered him was the way she spoke and how they looked at him, like they didn't really believe him. Pearl pulled him aside and began to desperately wrap him in bandages, even though he had only suffered minor scratches and a bruise or two. Amethyst had transformed into a bird and circled the beach, looking for signs of the gem-monster. Garnet looked around the spot they had seen Steven in before, but found herself unable to find anything but rocks and sand. She did, however, seem to stare toward the cliff for a large amount of time.

When all the gems gathered back at the house, the reports began. Amethyst said she was unable to find anything, Pearl happily reported that Steven's wellbeing was not in danger and Garnet informed them that she was unable to find the gem.

"See, I knew he was dreaming." Amethyst commented, angering the young half-gem.

"I wasn't! I'm telling the truth!" he shouted.

"Then where's the gem, mister Super-Hero?" she asked with a sly grin.

"I…I don't know. I saw it fall when it poofed." he spoke with a slightly dejected look on his face.

"Could the monster have left when it sensed us come-back?" Pearl asked Garnet, ignoring Steven's cries of how he had beaten it.

"Maybe Steven made the holes in the house and wanted to pin the blame on a monster." at this point, it was obvious even to Steven that the purple gem was more interested in getting a rise out of Steven for her own personal enjoyment.

"I believe in Steven." Garnet flatly said, causing all three of the others to stare at her in surprise "However, it could be that it regenerated faster than normal gems. The monster could still be lurking around." She added.

"That…could be the case…but still, for Steven t—" Pearl began but was quickly cut-off by Garnet.

"I believe in Steven." she repeated, shutting the Pearl up "Steven, tell us more about these super powers."

It was at this moment that Steven's eyes began to shine like the stars in the sky. He nodded with wide smile "Sure! Look, I can jump really high now!" he said while bending his knees.

As the boy's feet left the floor, he barely managed to lift himself a couple of feet in the air. When he landed, everyone simply stared at him, disappointed. Confused he began to rub his head and tried jumping a few more times, but every jump was as normal as ever.

"Wait…it's not working. Let me try running really fast." he said and began running around the room, however his speed was the same it had always been "This isn't right! What's going on!? Ok, Super Strength!"

Steven rushed to Garnet's side and wrapped his arms around her right leg. With a great amount of effort, he attempted to lift her off the ground. When he suddenly felt her leg rise, a great big smile formed, only to turn into a frown when he saw that Garnet was lifting it herself.

"It's OK Steven, maybe your powers just aren't working right now." Garnet attempted to reassure the boy.

"Yea, cause he doesn't have any." the purple gem said dismissively as she turned toward the gaping holes in the walls "I'm gonna go check if I see anything in town." and with that, she turned into a bird once again.

"Oh my, how are we going to fix these walls?" Pearl mumbled while staring around the damaged house.

Meanwhile, Garnet had turned away and began moving toward the entrance of the temple. Feeling ignored and downtrodden, Steven began to think of a possible reason as to why his powers were not working. Then a sudden thought crossed his mind.

"That's it!" he suddenly shouted, startling Pearl and gaining Garnet's attention before the temple doors opened "Maybe I need to be in danger for my powers to work!" the word 'danger' didn't sit too well with either of the gems but before they could respond, the boy immediately took a running start and jumped out one of the holes.

"Steven!" Pearl desperately shouted.

The hole was facing a rather high drop, not as high as the first big jump he had made but still enough that he could get hurt from the fall. As gravity took over him once more and he began seeing the sand rapidly approaching, the sudden thought that maybe rushing a test like that might not have been a good idea. The boy covered his face with his arms as he was about to hit the ground, but then nothing happened.

"Did I do it?" he asked, pulling his arms away and seeing that he was hovering merely inches from the ground.

"No." Garnet's voice was heard right above him. When Steven looked up, he saw that Garnet was lifting him up by the back of his shirt "That was dangerous."

"That was the whole point!" he shouted and crossed his arms.

"This isn't the way to do things." Garnet responded as she jumped back into the house, Steven in tow "Don't do it ever again."

"Steven! Thank goodness you're alright!" Pearl screeched, her hair completely disheveled "What were you thinking!?"

The rest of the day, Steven was under the watchful eye of Pearl. While Amethyst was off doing whatever she felt like doing around the boardwalk and Garnet retreated into her room, Pearl had begun planning on how to board-up the holes while occasionally looking to see if Steven remained in his room. In turn, the young boy had opened one of his windows and stared out into the vast ocean with a disappointed look upon his face.

"Man, I don't get it." he mumbled "I even beat the monster, why aren't my new powers working now?" his brow twisted into a frown and he angrily picked up a toy soldier from the ground and threw it out of the window with all his might "Wow!"

What surprised Steven was the distance the toy soldier traveled and the speed at which it flew. In the blink of an eye, the toy was gone and became nothing but a twinkle in the sky. Stars in his eyes again, Steven stepped back from the window and looked up at the ceiling. With a feeble jump he managed to touch the ceiling with his fingers.

"Pearl! Look!" he shouted down at Pearl who looked up with narrowed eyes. When he tried to jump again, he once again could only lift himself a couple of feet into the air.

"That's nice, Steven." she said dismissively and went back to patching up the holes.

How come it works when nobody's watching? He asked himself while sitting on his bed. It was strange, the powers seemed to work just fine when he was by himself but the moment he got an audience, they simply vanished and he was normal again. He couldn't understand why his powers worked like that. As he frowned and looked down at the bed sheets and then at the darkening sky outside, an idea popped into his head.

"Pearl, I'm gonna go sleep early tonight. I'm tired." he shouted down at the gem, quickly jumping under the covers.

"What? What about dinner?"

"Too tired, not hungry." She responded.

"Ok, I'm just about done patching this up. Once I finish, I'll hmm…go back to my room…yes…" she said with a nervous laugh.

Steven patiently waited for Pearls hammering to stop and kept his ears open for the door to the temple. After a few minutes, he heard Pearl congratulating herself for a job well done and then her steps toward the door. Moments later, the sound of the large temple door shutting was heard and Steven immediately jumped out of bed. He quickly fluffed his pillows, gathered a few of his stuffed toys and put them all under the covers, attempting to create a believable decoy. With one last look around the house, he made his way to the open window and climbed up to the roof.

As Steven stood above the house, he looked up at the large statue and smiled. With a single leap, he managed to land on the statue's head and off into the night he went.


	4. The Dark Monster

Steven's bare feet landed upon the very top of the lighthouse overlooking the cliff. His new powers allowed him to propel himself great distances, being able to reach the top of the cliff in a single leap and the rood of the lighthouse with a second. As he stood up straight, Steven couldn't help but release a gasp of admiration and take a moment to admire all that he could see. The sun had gone down, being replaced by the bright full moon. The stars were shining in the sky like a sparkling roof over his head while the lights coming from the buildings of Beach City blanketed the ground. Ocean to his back and land to his front, rarely had he been able to admire his birthplace in such a way.

"Hmm…I'm hungry." he mumbled to himself after a few minutes of gazing upon the wonderful view.

Steven's eyes locked in place when the giant donut above his favorite shop came into view. Without thinking, he jumped as high as he could, shooting through the air like a bullet. As he felt his body begin to fall, Steven finally noticed the great distance between himself and the ground. For a moment he began to panic, seeing the rapidly approaching ground and his large shadow. Unlike last time, however, he did not close his eyes and instead steeled himself for landing. His feet touched the ground and it felt like he was landing on a pile of fluffy pillows, the momentum causing him to lose his balance for a moment but it was soon recovered.

"Need to work on the landing." he commented before making a big smile, just thinking of how much fun free falling was once the gut-wrenching fear was gone.

The young boy bent his knees and arched forward, like pudgy athlete getting ready to run. As if there was a signal, he took off into town at a great speed. His body moved much faster than before when running on the gem monster's tongue, however he was unable to clearly see where he was going either as everything passed by him in a blur, before his mind could react.

Steven suddenly saw the vague outline of a person before him, right in his trajectory and once again, he panicked. Even he knew that with the speed at which he traveled, stopping before hitting the obstacle would be impossible. He also knew he would be unable to react in time to change directions. In the split second before collision, Steven told his body to jump, in an attempt to at least keep the person safe. His body, however, did not obey him and instead something odd happened. Everything suddenly went dark right before his eyes. His body felt cold, incredibly cold and his lungs were unable to find any air. The darkness only lasted for a moment, before he was back on the boardwalk, still running at the same speed as before, but this time, no obstacle was in his way.

The young half-gem hit the brakes immediately, stopping his body from running any further. After a quick deceleration and traveling a few more dozen feet, he finally stopped. With wide eyes he looked back and saw Ronaldo, standing in the middle of the boardwalk with two bags of trash in his hands and a stunned expression. The blond haired fry cook was in awe as he released the bags, letting them drop to the floor as he began running back to his shop while screaming about a monster.

"Monster!?" Steven suddenly shouted, looking behind him to see if he could spot the monster that had frightened Ronaldo.

When he saw nothing, Steven couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. A couple of seconds later, Ronaldo rushed out while carrying Peedee under his arm. The two Fryman brothers just stood there on the boardwalk, staring at Steven with wide eyes while the young crystal gem stared back in confusion. Peedee was the first one to talk out of the three.

"You said there was a monster but I only see Steven." the younger brother said with a frown as he struggled to be released by Ronaldo.

"I swear! It ran right at me! It was all black and then it sank into the ground and stopped right where Steven is!" Ronaldo shouted, lifting his squirming brother in the air "Steven! Did you see it too!? Is it another one of the monsters your family keeps attracting!? Where is it!? Did your family beat the monster already!? Where are the others!?"

Steven just stood there, stunned by the sudden barrage of questions. Suddenly, Peedee managed to kick his brother in the head, forcing the bigger one of the two to release him and he landed on the boardwalk. Instead of looking mad at his brother, who ignored the hit and kept shouting questions at Steven while taking out his phone to take notes, Peedee looked toward Steven with a worried expression.

"Dude, are you…OK?" he asked, reaching out to Steven "You look kinda pale." his hand gently touched the boy's shoulder and Steven's body jerked awake.

"Wha? I don't…huh?" the half-gem spouted while taking a few nervous steps back, looking around "Monster?" he repeated the word Ronaldo was starting to say over and over again.

"Yes! You saw it right? It was running really fast, faster than a car and when it was about to hit me POOF, it vanished and appeared a few feet away! It was crazy weird!" Ronaldo shouted "All black! It looked so freaky!"

"Come on, man. Steven's not looking good. Lay off him for a sec." Peedee pushed his brother away and stepped closer to Steven again "Maybe you should sit down Steven, want to come in?" he pointed back to his family's shop, but Steven just looked confused.

"I'm fine…gotta go, thanks bye!" he suddenly shouted as he turned around and started running away from the Fryman brothers, using his regular speed rather than the enhanced one.

Steven ran and ran for a few minutes, caring little for direction. As his breath began to fail him and his muscles felt tired, he began to slow down, stopping at the side of a building to rest. Steven pressed his back against the wall and slid down to the ground, looking at his hands intently.

"What did he mean by monster?" he asked himself "I was the one running but…what did I look like then?" he asked confused "I thought being Super Steven was cool, but this is freaking me out."

It was then that he noticed something. He noticed it with his peripheral vision, the light hanging from the building was on his right side, but his own shadow wasn't casting on his left, rather, it was right under him. Steven quickly stood up and stared at his shadow, a black circle under him, unfazed by the light. Slowly, the shadow began to correct itself, moving to his left and taking his shape as if trying to make it saw nothing out of the ordinary happened.

"What the…" Steven suddenly mumbled, turning his head "What's going on!?" his shout echoed through the silent area, causing a dog to start barking "I gotta tell the others about this!" he said while turning to head back home.

As he tried to move, he Steven immediately felt something tugging on the back of his shirt. His head instantly snapped back to see what was stopping him and he saw something that surprised him greatly, a black hand sticking out of his shadow.

"Aaaaahh!" the young boy shouted, tripping and falling on his behind "What are you?" he asked but the hand simply dove right back into the shadow.

Instinct told him to go tell the crystal gems about what he had just seen, but instead he stood up and crouched down next to his unmoving shadow. Sheepishly he moved a finger down, touching the darkness on the pavement. It didn't feel like he was touching the ground, rather it felt soft and extremely cold. When he retracted his finger, a ripple formed and spread through the shadow.

"Hey…it's OK. You can come out." Steven spoke in a soft and friendly tone, trying his best to hide how freaked out he was "It was you wasn't it? The one giving me super powers?" he asked.

The shadows showed no reaction for a few moments, but then it slowly began to lift from the ground and form a small creature. It was all black with the exception of its blank white eyes that reflected Steven when looking in his direction. It looked like the silhouette of a small disproportionate humanoid, having a head almost as large as the rest of its body. The creature's arms and legs ended in small claws and on its head, two small horns from the back to the front. On its forehead, was a small black gem, hard to see as it matched the color of the its body but unlike the rest, it reflected a little light in certain positions. Steven could see that it was smooth on one side, but jagged on the other.

"Hey little buddy." Steven said to the creature little more than half his size "Hey there, you saved me from the monster this afternoon right?" as innocent as he was, Steven wasn't dumb and had quickly made the connection.

The creature turned its head inquisitively, as if trying to make out the meaning of Steven's words and then slowly nodded.

"Wow, so you can go into my shadow and give me powers?" he asked.

The creature paused and shook its head. Slowly it held out its hand to Steven and waited for the boy to return the gesture. Feeling a little nervous, Steven stretched his hand to touch the creature's and instantly it lost its shape and shadows crept all over Steven's body. When he was done, Steven looked at his hands and they were completely black. Quickly, he rushed to a nearby window to look at his reflection. He could only see his upper body, but it was clear that it was all covered in a black layer, still showing the outline of his body and the star on his shirt. His face was also black and his eyes were wide, empty and mirror like, the same as the creatures. Along with his hair, horns circled his head.

As if remembering something, Steven tried to pull up his now black shirt and take a look at his gem. The gem was in its place, as pink as ever. It was then that he noticed the small black gem on his forehead.

"Cool, so it's kinda like fusion?" Steven asked and the creature separated from his body and shrugged "Huh…you don't get it either do you?" he smirked and the creature shrugged again.

For a moment Steven assumed a thinking pose, trying to make sense of it all. His thoughts, however, were interrupted by someone screaming his name.

"Steven!" it was Pearl's voice and it was coming from right above him.

Steven's eyes quickly shot to the top of the building he was next to and saw Pearl standing on the roof with a mad look in her eye. Immediately he looked back to where the creature was but it had sunk back into darkness and become his shadow once again. Pearl landed next to him, poking a finger into his forehead.

"Hi Pearl! How's it hanging?" he tried to play the situation off with a smile but stopped when he realized that Pearl was having none of it.

"Where have you been!? I've was worried sick!" she shouted.

"How did you know I was gone." he asked.

Pearl suddenly straighten her back and her cheeks turned blue for a moment "Well I went to go watch y—I mean check on you and you were gone!" she explained "Why are you out here this late, especially when you're grounded!?"

"I was hungry?" he smiled.

"Hung—you snuck out for donuts!?" she shouted, pointing to the distance and revealing to Steven that he was only a block away from the donut shop.

"Yes!" he responded before even thinking.

"Home! Now! Young man!" Pearl commanded, pointing in the temple's direction.

Sullenly, Steven hung his head and turned around. As he walked though, a pair of mirror like eyes showed up in his shadow, staring blankly at him. Steven merely smiled and winked, the eyes vanished.


	5. Her Name

Steven rushed around his home in search for the rest of the Crystal Gems, looking everywhere from behind the kitchen counter to under the couch. Once he was finally sure that none of the gems were around, the young boy quickly climbed up the stairs and dropped down to kneel on the floor. He moved the palm of his hand down, touching the shadow under him and feeling the extremely cold sensation that came with it.

"We're clear. It's OK to come out now." Steven announced with a smile, yet nothing seemed to happen "Hello? Little buddy?" he called again.

For a few moments, there was no response from the shadow and just as Steven was about to give up, the black spot began to slide from under him and two mirror-like eyes opened from within. Steven smiled widely, marveled by the creature as it began to slowly form its small body. Eventually, the dark creature was fully formed and simply stared back at Steven in silence. Its empty eyes looked the boy from top to bottom and it began to kneel as well, mimicking Steven.

"Hi!" Steven could not contain his outburst, causing the creature to flinch and sink partly into shadows "Oh! No, wait! Sorry!" he tried to recover, waving his hands around frantically.

The small creature simply cocked its head and began to rise once again.

"Good, good." he said as he tried his very best to contain his glee "Can you…talk?"

After a moment of pondering on the question, the creature simply shrugged.

"I'll take that as a 'no'." he brought his hand to his chin to think and the creature mimicked him immediately "Do you have a name? I can't keep calling you 'little buddy' all the time."

The creature shrugged once again and Steven frowned. He wasn't the best at coming up with names, Lion being a perfect example of his naming-sense, though he did like some of the titles he had come up with like Beach Summer Fun Buddies and Jam Buds. As he pondered possible names, the creature cocked its head once again in a different direction and the sunlight reflected off the gem on its head for a moment.

"That's it! You're a gem, so you must have a gem name." he said excitedly as he rushed to the television set and picked up the book resting on top of it "I got the perfect book for it!" he shouted, returning to a kneeling position in front of the small creature.

He immediately began naming random gem names as he flipped through the book. Every time a name came up, the creature shrugged and Steven took it as a 'no', yet getting little discouraged as he just kept listing names as they came up. After a couple of minutes of no success, Steven took another approach to the problem, trying instead to actually match the gem to one in the book.

"It's kind of hard to see." the young half-gem commented as he tried his best to look at the small black gem amidst a mass of pure darkness, causing him to lean forward and stick his face closer to the creature's.

Then something surprising happened, the creature moved its head closer to Steven, the gem on its forehead making contact with Steven's forehead. The shadows the creature controlled had always been cold and its body was like touching ice, yet for some strange reason Steven could feel incredible warmth coming from the gem. Steven was stunned, his eyes like stars as he just stared blankly at the creature and felt the warmth coming from the small black gem. When the creature moved away, Steven caught a better look of the gem and began frantically flipping through the pages of the book.

"Serendibite?" a shrug "Cassiterite?" another shrug "Obsidian?" yet another shrug "Jet?" at the quick mention of the name, the creature's head suddenly perked up, Steven noticed it "Is it Jet? Is Jet your name? Awesome!" he asked as his smile began to grow again.

The creature paused for a moment and then reached out with its hands, being extra careful to not hurt Steven with its claws. The creature cupped Steven's face with its hands and placed the warm gem on his forehead once again. The gem couldn't speak, but Steven understood that it was thanking him in its own way.

"Wow…look!" he said as he pulled away and began reading about the gem's properties in the book "It says you represent protection and purification." Steven stared at Jet and patted it on the head "I knew you were good."

A noise was suddenly heard from beneath them, the sound of the warp-pad activating. As if reacting on instinct, Jet quickly dove into the shadows again and moved them under Steven, who in turn stood up and sat on the bed, as if nothing had happened.

"Steven!" Pearl called out as she came into his view.

"I'm here!" he rushed to respond and began waving at her awkwardly.

"Right…" Pearl raised an eyebrow but then signaled for him to come down.

After Steven had managed to reunite with the gems, he noticed the distinct lack of Garnet, with only Pearl and Amethyst having returned from their mission.

"Where's Garnet?" he asked with a curious look in his eye.

"Yes, well." Pearl began but paused to give Amethyst an uncomfortable look "You know how we've been going on missions a lot more these past few days?" the boy nodded "Well, we're really just been trying to get into an old temple we found. We think Peridot might be hiding inside." she made another pause, clearly not liking what she was about to say next "The whole place is littered with traps and when Amethyst triggered one—"

"Hey!" Amethyst interrupted the bird beak nosed gem with a frown "I just touched a monkey head!" she explained herself, as if it all made perfect sense.

"Yes, touching random statues is clearly the best way to handle yourself in a trap infested temple!" Pearl snapped.

"How was I supposed to know the monkey was booby-trapped!?" Amethyst roared in anger.

"Guys! Guys!" the young boy called out, getting between the two bickering gems "What about Garnet!?" he shouted, trying to get the conversation back on track.

Pearl composed herself, giving Amethyst a sharp glare "Amethyst triggered a trap and we got separated from Garnet. There seems to be something like the gem disruptor barriers on Peridot's ship blocking our path. None of us can touch or damage it, but Garnet—" again, she was interrupted, but this time by Steven.

"You guys need me to cross the barrier!" he shouted with stars in his eyes and a smile that went from ear to ear.

"Yes." Pearl confirmed with a frown, clearly not liking the idea of taking Steven into that place.

"But…I'm still grounded." he added, making puppy dog eyes at the taller gem.

Pearl stared back at him for a moment, completely unfazed by his attempt at an adorable stare, but in the end released a sigh "Fine, you're ungrounded."

Not just Steven, but Amethyst also cheered as the two hooked their arms and began dancing in place. When Pearl chastised the purple gem for behaving like a child, Steven quickly rushed upstairs to get his cheeseburger backpack. As he packed his things, Jet's head popped out of the shadows and stared at him.

"Oh." he dropped to one knee and leaned in close so he could whisper "You stay here, I don't want the others to find out about you just yet and it could be dangerous." he pressed his forehead against the black gem and took off to the with meet the still arguing gems downstairs.

"Alright, let's just go." Pearl begrudgingly said as the three crystal gems walked onto the pedestal.

As the light began to flood the warp-pad, Steven noticed something rushing toward them, something flat, dark and on the floor. The shadow entered the light as Steven tried to shoo it away but it was too late and they all warped out of the house.

When the gem trio arrived at their destination, Steven quickly began looking around franticly. They were in a large chamber with an incredibly high ceiling and the warp-pad was surrounded by large monkey statues. The more he searched, the more he was unable to spot any anomaly on the ground and could not differentiate their shadows from Jet. Both Amethyst and Pearl stared inquisitively at Steven, though the purple gem had narrowed her eyes a bit more than usual.

"What's wrong Steven?" Pearl asked.

"Nothing!" Steven shouted immediately, making a face that could tell no lies.

Pearl seemed to ignore it and chalk it off to Steven simply admiring their new surroundings, however Amethyst stared at the boy for a few moments longer. She approached him as Pearl moved away from the pad.

"Hey, did you see something warp in with us?" she asked, keeping her eyes on his the whole time.

Steven slowly began shaking his head, his honest expression beginning to fail him, but before Amethyst could extract a truthful response from him, Pearl shouted at the both of them to hurry up. Amethyst turned her head to the side for a moment and then looked back toward Steven with a smile and a wink, before moving past Pearl and through a large hole in the wall.

"Let's do this!" she shouted, pumping her arm in the air, while Pearl brought her palm up to her face.

Steven remained frozen for a few moments, confused by Amethyst's actions. He looked around again, trying to see if he could see any indication that Jet was with them, but with nothing to distinguish her from the rest of the shadows, there was simply no way of knowing. He followed the other crystal gems.

They weren't joking about the place being full of traps, it took the ground nearly an hour to try to pass through all the traps without triggering them. At one point Steven suddenly activated a trap that shot arrows at him, Pearl let out a gasp and if she had one, her heart would have nearly broken in two but nothing came of it for Steven's bubble protected him from harm. It was then that Amethyst had a brilliant idea and a few minutes later, the three of them were inside Steven's bubble, triggering every trap along their path but remaining under the protection of the pink sphere. Pearl did not seem pleased with the idea at all.

Once they finally arrived at their destination, the Steven deactivated his bubble and stared in awe at the large wall of yellow light that shot from the ceiling. On the other side of the wall he could see Garnet, sitting cross-legged, waiting for their arrival. The fusion stood up and lowered the shades, revealing her three eyes and giving Steven a wink with the bottom right one.

"I looked around but there's another wall up ahead." she explained and then smiled, as Steven touched the wall and showed that it had no effect on him "Super Steven to the rescue." she said softly and causing the trembling boy to laugh.

Steven imitated his actions on Peridot's ship, creating an opening in the wall to allow Amethyst and Pearl to pass. There had been no way for Steven to predict what would happen next, as he passed through the barrier, right behind Amethyst. The wall of yellow light came down and suddenly a pained scream came screeching from behind them. The three gems quickly turned around, drawing their weapons and getting into position to fight. Steven's eyes shot in the direction of the sound with an extremely worried expression, as he somehow knew the origin of the scream.

Before the group was a small shivering creature holding its arm. It's blank eyes shot up, looking directly toward Steven and then at the armed gems that surrounded it.


	6. Broken

"Corrupt gem!" Garnet shouted as she rushed forward and aimed a fist toward Jet.

"No! Wait!" Steven tried to stop her but was held back by Pearl, who had instinctively positioned herself in front of him.

As Garnet brought down her fist, Jet seemed to glance toward Steven and Pearl for but a moment before leaping forward and entering Garnet's own shadow. The armored punch caused the ground to shatter but Garnet knew she had missed her target and quickly turned around to search for it. Amethyst, with her whip at the ready, suddenly felt something wrap around her ankles. When the purple gem looked down, a pair of black hands were coming out of her shadow and covering her legs in a layer of darkness. When Amethyst tried to jump away, the hands pulled her down, dragging the gem into her own shadow and was replaced by the small creature.

"Amethyst!" Garnet growled as she aimed another punch at the creature, this time connecting and sending it crashing into the wall with a pained screech.

"Stop it!" Steven shouted as Pearl began to actively hold him back with a confused expression "She's not evil!"

"What did you do to Amethyst?" Garnet inquired with her hands around the creature's neck.

Before an answer even had the chance to be given, Amethyst's whip shot out of the Garnet's shadow and wrapped around the fusion's leg. Garnet felt something pull from the other side and lifted her leg, bringing Amethyst out of the darkness.

"See? She's fine!" Steven pushed Pearl's arms aside and rolled away from her, ending his movement next to Garnet and placing his hands on her gauntlet.

"That was so freaky guys!" Amethyst groaned with wide eyes, heavily unnerved by the experience.

Garnet looked back at the purple crystal gem and upon seeing that physically she was alright, her three eyes turned to Steven "You know this gem?" she asked.

"Yes! She's my friend!" Steven shouted, trying to pull her arm away from Jet.

"Steven, this is a corrupt gem…and these abilities…we need to poof and bubble it like the rest." despite Steven's pleas, Garnet pulled back her fist and gripping onto Jet tightly.

Pearl had reached Steven and grabbed his arm, trying to pull him away from Garnet. Amethyst stood in place, staring at the black creature. Jet, however, reached out a hand to Steven in desperation. Seeing the black hand, Steven reached out as well and then something the Crystal Gems had not anticipated happened, Jet seemed to melt and surround Steven. The result was a Steven devoid of color, completely black, with a small black broken gem on his forehead and horns coming out of his head.

The gems all gasped in surprise, even Garnet, however the fusion gem was the first to act "Steven!" her large gauntlet reached out to Jet's gem on his forehead but Steven frowned and slipped into his own shadow before her hand could even reach him.

"Steven!" Pearl let out a scream like a banshee, confused and scared for Rose's child.

Steven's shadow quickly rushed away from them and once it was at a safe distance, Steven emerged from it, gasping for air. He felt his body cold, extremely cold and the sudden lack of oxygen had made him somewhat dizzy, but when he saw the other gems rush toward him, his first instinct was to run away from them. It was all to keep Jet safe, because they just wouldn't listen to him.

Steven ran at incredible speeds, gaining a fair bit of distance between himself and the gems. As he turned the corner, he looked back to see if they followed. While he saw nothing, his body suddenly stopped moving. Steven's head quickly snapped forward and saw that his face was mere inches from another barrier.

"Get back, I'll get us through!" he told Jet and the shadow gem complied, the darkness that enveloped his body immediately draining into his shadow.

Steven placed his arms into the field, creating an opening big enough for Jet to slide through and he then followed. As they passed the barrier, Pearl's voice was heard, desperately calling out to him. He turned and saw the gems approaching the field. In a move that he certainly wasn't expecting, Garnet punched the barrier with her gauntlet while Pearl reached out to him. Both of the gems received powerful shocks, pushing them back. As Amethyst caught Pearl, Garnet threw another punch, obtaining the same result. The way the gems were so desperately trying to push through the barrier designed to keep them away, stunned Steven.

"Steven, please! Get away from that gem!" Pearl screamed, reaching out to his again but this time was held back by Amethyst.

"Let us through!" Garnet ordered, throwing a third punch which caused her gauntlets to vanish and forced her to take a few steps back.

Steven looked down at Jet, who simply stared up at him, and then back at the gems. The young boy took a deep breath and opened his mouth. As he was about to say something, the sound of something crashing came from behind him. When Steven turned around, he saw not Peridot, but a monster. The large creature's body occupied the whole hallway, it stood on two legs and hand arms that reached down to the ground. In a way, it somewhat resembled a monkey with abnormally long arms and what seemed to be three tails that ended in shagged spear-head like gem tips. Its whole body was covered n white fur but a large orange gem was visible on its throat.

The gem monster released a screech that made Steven instantly cover his ears and swung its long arm at him. Without even thinking about it, his shield formed to block the strike and caused the gem monster's whole body to vibrate from the impact. It released another high pitched screech and this time turned around, throwing the three tails toward him and around the shield. Just as the tails were about to hit him, Jet surrounded his body and Steven dodge-rolled forward, between the monster's legs.

Steven turned around to look at the other crystal gems, as they desperately shouted at him and then up at the gem monster "Ok Jet, let's show them that you're an ally!" he shouted as the monster swung down, but his only the ground for Steven had already rushed further away from the monster, waving his arms as if taunting it. The monster followed and soon, the gems lost sight of them both, yet kept hearing the sounds of battle.

Garnet dropped to her knees and punched the ground while Pearl just curled up into a sobbing ball. Amethyst was the only one, who while still worried for Steven, seemed to be calm. She pushed Pearl so her shoulder had the wall for support and then turned to Garnet with a frown.

"Don't worry guys, Steven's gotten stronger. That monster won't be able to go through his shield." she attempted to reassure them, but was met with silence "We've fought toug—" she began saying, however Garnet cut her off.

"It's not that monster I'm worried about, it's the shadow one that's dangerous." she mumbled.

Amethyst looked confused "You talk like you know about it." she commented and turned her head to look at Pearl who was staring at Garnet with a worried expression.

"Those abilities and that broken gem on its forehead…I should have noticed it sooner. That was Jet." Garnet said, making Pearl cringe.

"Jet?" Amethyst had never heard of the name before, thus she assumed it was a gem from before her time with the Crystal Gems.

"Jet's powers on a corrupted gem…we need to contain her immediately." Garnet tried to touch the barrier again, but only hurt herself in the process.

"It seemed to be helping Steven though, maybe he tamed it like with the Centipeetle Mother." the purple gem commented and this time, it was Pearl's voice that was heard.

"It doesn't make sense. Back then I know we saw her gem break, not just crack. How is she like this?" she brought her hands up to her head "She must be trying to get Rose's gem!"

"Hey, this making my head hurt!" Amethyst raised her arms in frustration "Just tell me who this Jet was that's scaring you guys so much."

"Jet…" Garnet paused for a moment and then looked Amethyst straight in the eyes "…was a Crystal Gem that Rose personally destroyed."

The gem monster was strong, physically strong as it smashed through anything in its path, however it was much slower than Steven, allowing the shadow covered boy to keep his distance for the time being. As the game of cat and mouse continued, Steven quickly reached what he assumed was the center of the temple. He entered a gigantic room with a ceiling so high that he could not see where it ended. The walls seemed to spiral upwards with several large dark holes in them and at the center of the - mostly - empty room was a pyramid like pedestal with a gem floating above it.

Steven had little time to admire the room, for the monster soon caught-up with him. Steven quickly turned to run toward the center of the room but as his head turned, something large crashed in front of him. Whatever it was, was so tall that it cast a shadow over Steven and everything around it. The giant being was another gem monster, evidenced by the large orange and white gem it had between its four eyes. The monster had four arms and was somewhat similar to the one that had been chasing Steven, only much larger, with orange fur around its body and six tails flapping about.

"Wow, so you're the ones guarding this place?" Steven said, thinking that even if it was quite a terrifying monster, it actually looked kind of cool "Sorry to bother you, I'll be leaving now." he said, turning around and trying to pass it off as a misunderstanding but as he looked back, the other gem was already there, growling at him.

Both of the monsters began a relentless assault against Steven, swinging down their long limbs in an attempt to crush him. The youngest Crystal Gem, on the other hand, used a combination of his shield and Jet's abilities to avoid taking damage. While not getting hurt seemed to be quite easy, despite the foes he faced, it was also true that even when he tried to punch the large one with Jet's enhanced strength, the monster barely seemed to care.

"Jet, I'm open for ideas!" Steven said as he narrowly avoided a fist from turning him into a smudge on the floor.

Jet did not answer, but instead it forced Steven's body to stop moving all of a sudden and sunk into his shadow by herself, leaving him exposed. Surprised by Jet leaving him, Steven could only block the larger monster's attack with his shield. Almost instantly the other rushed Steven from behind and forced the young boy to form a bubble around him to stop the attack.

"Jet! Where are you!?" Steven cried desperately, a tear in his eye "I need you your help!" he shouted, seeing the monsters pull back their arms for another crushing attack.

Jet's black hands immediately shot out from Steven's shadow and he noticed that the shadow underneath him had grown, connecting with the monster's own shadows as well to form a huge black spot on the floor. The black hands grabbed his bubble and dragged the pink ball into the shadow, avoiding the attack. Unlike the previous times he entered the shadows with Jet, Steven was in his bubble and quickly realized that inside of it he didn't feel cold and still had air to breathe.

"Wait…did you want me to bubble so you could do this?" he asked as he saw the blank pair of eyes staring at him from the other side of the bubble.

In response, Jet simply placed her gem against his bubble and then "swam" up and out of the shadows. Steven lost sight of Jet as the small gem creature left the darkness. He beat his palms against the bubble, shouting her name, but received no response.


	7. Memories of a Distant Past

The temple shook and the Crystal Gems quickly got to their feet. They looked around confused as a powerful earthquake began destroying the structure around them. As they struggled to keep their balance, the barrier before them thinned and faded away along with any light in the hallway, leaving the gems in darkness until Pearl finally used her own light to show them the path ahead.

"Come on, we need to find Steven!" Garnet didn't wait for the others, as she was already rushing down the hallway by the time Pearl's light came on.

As they arrived at the large room, the ground shook again. Pearl's light intensified and began to reveal part of the room and the gems saw what seemed to be part of a gigantic gem monster. The gems quickly summoned their weapons but as Pearl's light moved up to get a better look at their next enemy, they saw something odd. The giant monster was stuck in place with two of its four hands grabbing a smaller but still large monster, the same one that had attacked Steven before, but completely turned black. The giant one's tails were already piercing the smaller monster's body, however the smaller monster's three tails also pierced through the giant one's head.

The two monster's before them suddenly poofed into smoke and gems began falling toward the floor. Pearl's light focused on the gems, revealing one to be orange and white, belonging to the giant monster, another was a darker shade of orange, from the first monster that had attacked Steven, however there were three others. One was a square green gem they had not seen before, next to it was an equally unknown triangular yellow gem and finally, between the larger gems was a small and broken black gem they instantly recognized as Jet's.

OoOoOoOoO

Steven kept shouting up at Jet to let him out, not for himself but out of worry for her ability to fight those monsters by herself. The bubble was the only thing allowing Steven to breathe inside of Jet's shadow space and he didn't know if he would be able to move around in the sea of shadows. One side of him wanted to release the bubble to try and get out, another told him that he would run out of air before even learning how to move by himself in that space.

For a few moments Steven considered the risks, but as he finally reached the decision to risk it and go help Jet, his bubble was suddenly lifted upward. Steven felt himself being projected out of the shadows and into an equally dark area. His bubble broke as he crashed against the floor, but Steven found himself able to breathe. His eyes narrowed as a bright light hit his face and while unable to tell what stood before him from sight alone, he could tell who they were from their voices as the Crystal Gems rushed to hug him.

"Oh Steven! We were so worried!" Pearl was a sobbing mess as she squeezed him tightly.

"I'm fine, I told you we could do it!" Steven said with a smile, feeling the gem's love, though their worry was like a punch to the gut at the same time "Oh yea! Jet? Where is she?" he asked, trying to turn his head while caught in Pearl's arms.

Garnet was the first to break from the hug and with a hand on each of the gems shoulders they also released Steven. Pearl's head turned toward the ground behind them and Steven saw the sparkling gems spread across the floor. His eyes stopped at the two orange gems first, identifying them to be from the gem monsters he had been fighting. Then he spotted the green gem and the yellow one.

"That's the lizard monster's gem I beat before! Why is it here?" he said with a confused expression "And that one was on the pedestal over there." Steven's hand rose, pointing in the direction of the center of the large room.

Pearl's light moved from the gems to the pedestal, illuminating it entirely "I see, that gem must have been powering this temple's defense systems. That's why the barriers went down." she commented with a hand on her chin.

"Wait a second! Where's Jet!?" Steven suddenly asked loudly and in return, the Gems looked at each other with worried expressions.

While Garnet looked down toward Steven, the others kept looking only at Garnet. The fusion gem opened her hand and revealed the small black gem resting on her palm.

"Jet…" Steven mumbled "She got poofed." had this happen over a year before, Steven would have been heavily affected by the fact that Jet was forced into her gem, but after witnessing Pearl and later Amethyst's regenerations, he had grown more used to it. It did still cause a sharp pain in his heart.

He heard a sound coming from his side and noticed Pearl and Amethyst gathering the four fallen gems and bubbling them. This action immediately put Steven on edge as he quickly reached up to Garnet's hand, yet the three eyed gem lifted Jet's gem away from his reach.

"Don't bubble it! Jet was protecting me!" he shouted, grabbing Garnet's leg and looking up at her with large, sad eyes.

"Steven, we don't know that she was doing it for anyone other than herself. Besides, she has been corrupted, she is dangerous." Garnet explained, but the boy frowned and took a step back.

"Jet isn't dangerous! She's smart and she got poofed protecting me." he shouted.

"Steven, she was fighting to get more g—" Garnet began, but Steven's voice overlapped hers.

"No! Centipeetle! Lapis Lazuli!" suddenly said and the other gems looked at each other in confusion.

"What do they have to do with this?" Amethyst asked, scratching her head.

"I was trying to tame Centipeetle, it was working and you guys suddenly burst in and beat it! Made it afraid of you!" he shouted, closing his eyes as the memories of that day resurfaced "That's why she started spraying acid everywhere in that cave, because she got scared when Garnet summoned her gauntlets. But even so, she still saved me!" he had his fists clenched and paused, biting his lower lip.

"Steven, there was no—" Pearl began but Steven continued over her.

"When I took Lapis out of the mirror the first thing you wanted was to fight her, she had been trapped and only wanted to go home! Lapis' gem was broken, she wasn't herself." his eyes opened and he stared straight into Garnet's shades, his face reflected upon them "But she still saved us from Jasper, from Malachite and is suffering at the bottom of the ocean right now!" he felt actual anger, an emotion very uncommon to him.

The gems simply stared at Steven, not knowing that to say. Seeing their confusion, Steven exhaled and relaxed his body.

"You guys don't trust other gems…and that's fine, I get it…not every gem is good and you guys must have seen a lot of those." his words dug deep into the gems like knives, but they also knew they were the unavoidable truth "But you trust me, you believe in me. So why can't you believe when I tell you guys that Jet isn't evil? That she isn't dangerous?" he suddenly felt tears welling up in his eyes, as if the tension was finally getting to him.

A hand slowly touched the top of his head, messing up his hair. As he looked up, he saw through a blurred vision of tears, Garnet's hand holding Jet's gem toward him. For a moment he simply stared at the gem but then looked up at Garnet. He noticed that she hand lowered her shades and all three eyes were looking down at him. With a nod, she confirmed that he had permission to take Jet…and he did.

Pearl complained but was shut down by Garnet, saying that Steven knew what he was doing and that they would be keeping an eye on Jet regardless. Pearl insisted on Jet being too dangerous to be left alone with Steven but Garnet reassured her that it would, likely, be alright. Amethyst, on the other hand, soon got bored with the whole thing.

"So, looks like no Peridot…can we go home now?" she asked and Garnet nodded.

"Crystal Gems, let's go home." she commanded and the whole group left the room.

As they walked back to the warp pad, taking far less time to do so due to the traps being deactivated, Steven carried Jet's gem in his hands extremely carefully. Pearl's light was enough to let him keep an eye on the black gem and he couldn't help but smile widely the whole way back.

As the group warped back, reappearing in a pillar of light outside of the temple doors, Steven turned back to the three gem warriors and cocked his head to the side.

"Can…can you guys tell me about Jet? What made you so worried about her?" he asked innocently.

Garnet and Pearl both looked at each but Amethyst's voice was heard before they could think up an answer "Yeah guys, I wanna know too! You got me all curious about it." she said and soon, both the half gem and the purple gem stared with pleading eyes at the two older gems.

"Fine. Pearl will provide the visual aids." Garnet said as they all moved down to the couches in the living area.

"What? I don't think it's very appropriate for someone's Steven's age." Pearl commented, sitting on the couch next to Garnet while Steven and Amethyst sat next to each other on the ground with wide smiles.

"It's fine, just leave out the worst parts." Garnet turned to look down at Steven and paused for a moment to think of her next words "Are you sure you want to know?" she believed the story might make him scared of Jet, but the boy simply nodded confidently "OK then…"

Pearl's gem began displaying a scene of a large group of gems, standing behind Rose Quartz.

"Jet was a part a member of the rebellion during the First War." the blue hologram focused on a slim looking gem with short hair and a dark dress "Many of the gems joined Rose's side due to admiration and loyalty to her. Others disagreed with some of Homeworld's ways and used the rebellion as a way to gain freedom from it. But then there were a few like your mother, gems that loved earth, be it their animals, plants or everything, they were very rare but still existed. Jet was one of those."

At this point, Steven's eyes were already breaming with amazement and stars were practically drawn on them. Amethyst remained uncharacteristically still and quiet. The hologram displayed the dark, short haired gem sinking into shadows and moving past what they assumed were Homeworld gems. Pearl continued the story.

"Jet was always very weak but her shadow abilities allow her to become a great spy for our side. However, she was a huge loner and we barely knew anything about her. Rose was practically the only one she talked to and even then it was mostly down to orders and reports." she paused and the hologram displayed Jet moving away from a group of what seemed to be cheering gems "But in turn, she seemed fascinated with humanity. Rose warned her to stay away, but Jet ignored her and spent all her free time infiltrating the still vastly underdeveloped human society, to observe them. There were even rumors that she tried disguising herself as a human to live among them." the hologram displayed a Jet covered in cloth and talking to humans with a wide smile "Then, after completing a very important mission, Jet asked Rose to give her a few years leave. Rose was reluctant at first, but with Jet's reputation being already quite low amongst the others and due to her great achievements in the war, Rose allowed her to leave…Jet vanished and we don't know what happened to her during the years she was gone." the hologram had displayed the silent conversation between Rose and Jet, with Jet finally bowing and exiting the frame.

"After a few years, Jet returned…but she was completely changed." Garnet continued while the hologram displayed Jet talking to Rose again. This time, Jet had changed considerably, her hair was a mess, her clothing ripped but most marking of all was the vicious and angry look in her eyes "For whatever reason she was filled with rage toward Homeworld and that anger made it even harder for others to approach her. She began requesting dangerous missions, fighting on the front-lines rather than gathering information and sabotage like she had always done." the hologram displayed Jet rushing ahead of every other gem and wildly attacking Homeworld gems "We only found out later that aside from diving into shadows, Jet had two dangerous abilities: She could partially fuse with other gems and take over their bodies like puppets." the hologram showed Jet melting and covering a gem in darkness, similar to what she had done with Steven, only this time Jet violently attacked other Homeworld gems with the captured gem's weapons. Pearl made sure to not show the more graphic parts "The second ability was something we found out too late. Jet could absorb fallen gems into her body and gain some of their strength. By the time we realized she was doing this, Jet had already absorbed dozens of gems." Steven grabbed Amethyst's arm when he saw Jet growing in size and looking around madly "But having so many voices in her mind, having all of the anger and rage from those gems inside of her, began to poison Jet's mind. She became even more wild and aggressive."

Steven suddenly noticed that Garnet seemed quite disgruntled as she told the story. Her reactions made him remember when she talked about the clusters, the gems that were forced to fuse together. It seemed to him that she viewed what Jet did as a similar concept.

"Then during one battle, Jet finally lost her mind." Pearl continued but the hologram vanished as an image of Jet screamed, it was clear that Pearl did not want to show the rest "She went berserk and hurt a lot of gems on both sides of the fight. She even dragged humans into the fight and…it wasn't pretty." even Pearl, who seemed to take pride in the war, looked uncomfortable "Rose finally stepped in and stopped Jet, but was forced to break her gem in the process."

Steven stared in awe at the two older gems while Amethyst simply released a small "wow" and "heavy". The young boy looked down at the black gem in his hands, staring at it for what felt like hours, Garnet's voice brought him back.

"This is why we were worried about Jet. She was unstable and dangerous even before being corrupted." Steven looked up at the fusion crystal gem.

"Can we even call it corruption? She doesn't act like any corrupt gem I've ever seen." Pearl added.

The conversation was interrupted by a bright light coming from Steven's hands. The gems quickly got to their feet, ready for what would come next. The light turned into a dark one and began to form a small black creature. Soon, a reformed Jet stood surrounded by the four Crystal Gems.


	8. Downtime

Jet looked around confused, observing the Crystal Gems that surrounded her. Upon seeing the small back creature back, Pearl reached up to her gem but was stopped by Garnet whole calmly placed her hand on Perl's. The bird beak nosed gem looked toward Garnet for an explanation but the fusion simply shook her head. Amethyst, on the other hand, didn't try to take out her weapon, instead taking a step back and turning to Steven to see what he would do.

Upon seeing Jet again, the holograms and the story he just witnessed became quite vivid in his mind. According to Garnet and Pearl, Jet had done unspeakable things during the war, things that not even his all-loving mother could forgive. It felt odd to think that the small creature he had recently met and had protected him on multiple occasions was considered a true monster by others.

Perhaps feeling Steven's split second of hesitation, Jet turned to one of the windows and made a mad dash for it. Steven held out his hand but Jet didn't stop, instead crashing through the window and dropping to the sand bellow. The crystal gems rushed after it, but as they reached the window, all four of them noticed something odd. Standing before Jet was Connie, with her back straight and eyes open wide from the surprise. Connie didn't move, instead remaining in place and looking down at the creature. Jet, in turn, cocked her head and held out her hand.

"Connie!" Steven shouted as he tried to climb out of the window but was stopped by Garnet.

"Hmm…Steven? What's going on?" Connie asked, her eyes not leaving Jet but still leaning back to avoid being touched by the unknown being.

"Connie, she won't hurt you!" Steven called out before opting to take another route out of the house, one Garnet would not oppose.

Jet's hand finally reached Connie while Steven used the long way down. The black gem's touch on Connie's arm felt incredibly cold and odd. Before her was a strange being made of darkness and a chilling touch, yet she didn't feel afraid and instead reached out with her own hand. The gems looked on as Connie's hand gently patted Jet's head. Steven rushed out of the house and down the stairs, only to find Connie carefully caressing Jet's head. When the young girl noticed his arrival, she stopped…only to feel Jet's cold grip on her head, keeping it on her head as if saying not to stop.

"She likes you!" Steven said excitedly.

"Yea…I…Steven what is this." Connie asked, returning to patting Jet's head.

"That's…a long story." the young boy slowly approached Jet and was met with a blank stare, causing him to tense up for a moment. Steven looked into Jet's expressionless eyes and then let out a sigh "I'm sorry."

Jet's hands pulled Connie's own away and released it. Slowly the small black creature approached Steven and stared at him intently. After a few seconds, that felt like an eternity to Steven, she bowed her head, remaining in that position until Steven realized what she wanted. He moved his forehead down to meet Jet's and when it touched her gem, he felt the warmth that was not present anywhere else on her body. Steven smiled and Connie blushed slightly.

"We'll keep an eye on Jet. If she steps out of line, we poof and bubble her for good." Garnet told the others as they watched the seen bellow "But for now, we do this…Steven's way." the fusion moved away from the window along with Amethyst, yet Pearl remained, watching Jet and Steven with a frown.

oOoOoOoOo

"Cool, I wish I could have seen it." Connie commented with an excited grin.

Steven sat on the sand next to Connie, just about done with telling her what had happened after her last visit, though keeping some of the details about Jet's past aside for the time being. While they sat, Jet had moved into Steven's shadow once again, apparently feeling far more comfortable in her own little dark world than outside it.

"I want to see Super Steven! It sounds awesome!" Connie cheered with an expectant look in her eyes.

"Hmm…you ok with that Jet?" Steven asked the gem in his shadow and instead of a direct response, his body progressively became covered in the dark layer.

"Wow…" Connie stared dumbfounded at him.

Steven slowly bent his knees and then jumped high in the air, sand flying all around from the force of the leap alone. He laughed as his body began descending toward the ground, however instead of aiming to land on his feet, he rapidly approached the ground head-first. Connie gasped and Steven smiled, taking air into his lungs and holding his breathe. The boy quickly sunk into his own shadow and popped out of the shadow cast by the cliff. Connie was more than impressed.

"Cool huh?" Steven asked her, happy that he could entertain Connie "I'm…We're super strong like this too!" he said, looking around for something heavy that he could lift.

At that very moment, Steven noticed Lion starting to walk up the stairs to the house. An idea formed in his head and his body sunk back into the shadows. Connie watched as Steven popped out underneath Lion, right from the pink feline's own shadow and lifted him off the ground effortlessly. Lion seemed less than pleased, actually downright annoyed with being picked up without permission and immediately began to squirm in order to get free. Instead, Steven jumped into the air and landed on the sand next to Connie. He placed Lion down and Jet's darkness began leaving his body.

"Steven that was very cool, but is that like…fusion?" Connie asked slightly nervously, giving a side-glance toward Jet.

Steven sat down cross-legged on the sand next to her and lifted his hand to his chin "I don't know, but don't think so." he mumbled "Garnet said that Jet had the power to control others with this. I guess she's just letting me do what I want."

The answer didn't seem to please Connie, who looked from Steven to Jet and back at him, worry written on her face "Are you sure that's safe?"

"Oh don't worry, Jet and I are buddies! We fought together!" he assured her while raising his fist triumphantly.

He looked back toward Jet, to see if she was mimicking his actions like before, but instead he was surprised to find that Jet was uncharacteristically staring Lion in the eye. The black gem stared blankly at the pink lion, who in turn glared back at her.

"Hmm…guys?" Steven called worried, but was ignored.

Jet's hand reached out to Lion's mane and the feline took a step back. The black gem didn't give up and took a step toward him. Lion let out a low growl, making Steven worry for what he would do if she continued. However, eventually Lion stopped growling and her black hands touched his pink mane. She began to move her hands around the mane, burying her face into it. In turn, Steven let out a loud laugh.

"Look Connie, their friends already." he commented and gave Steven an awkward smile.

"Hey Steven…does that work on humans too?" Connie asked while looking at the black gem cuddling up to Lion's mane.

"I don't know, it might just be a gem thing. But we can try!" he turned to Jet as she buried her face into the mane again "Jet, can you make Connie stronger?" he asked but was seemingly ignored "Hey?" his hand touched Jet's back and she turned to look at him, hands still holding on to Lion "Can you try it with Connie?" he tried once again.

This time Jet seemed to hear him and released Lion. The small black gem moved to Connie and touched the young girl's bare elbow with her small hands. Nothing seemed to happen, thus she tried again but obtained the same result.

"Guess it doesn't work on humans." Connie looked disheartened.

Seeing the look in Connie's eyes, Steven felt like a large needle was piercing his heart. He opened his mouth to try and comfort her but before he could, Jet jumped into Connie's shadow. A small black hand rose from the shadow and seemed to somehow grab the edge. Connie looked down in confusion, which only grew when Jet's hand moved Connie's shadow on its own. Not just her shadow moved, but Connie's body slid across the sand as well, her feet seemingly hovering just above the grains. It was then that suddenly, Jet began to move Connie's shadow around rapidly, causing the young girl to skate across the beach at high speeds.

At first, Connie sounded scared but soon after she began to happily cheer. Jet quickly stopped and grabbed Connie's legs, pulling her into the shadows for only a second, since the next she shot out of the shadow, gasping for air but flying up a few feet from the ground.

"Steven!" Connie called out worried but noticed, as she fell, that Steven was too far to reach her in time. The young lady closed her eyes, but felt no impact with the ground, instead she could feel hair in her face…or rather fur. She opened her eyes and saw that Lion had caught her and landed safely.

"Jet! No! Connie could have gotten hurt!" Steven shouted as he rushed toward Connie "Are you alright?" he asked with worry in his eyes.

Jet moved out of the shadows and simply stared back at Steven with her blank eyes that showed no emotion.

"Am I!? That was awesome!" Connie let out a loud laugh, throwing her arms in the air "Jet! Lion! Let's do it again!" she shouted but then her phone began to ring.

Connie knew exactly who it was because there were only a handful of people that would be calling her and one of them was standing right next to her. She excused herself and answered the call. Moments later she returned with a solemn expression.

"I have to go, my mom's picking me up. Says she wants me to help her with something." she informed him, looking disappointed "I'll see you later ok?"

Steven nodded.

"You too." she said to Lion and Jet, both of which seemed to ignore her for Jet was back to playing with Lion's mane.

Steven watched as Connie walked away. He loved the time he could spend together with her, it was a shame that she couldn't stay any longer, especially because he was starting to consider talking about Jet's past not that Connie had seemed to like the shadow gem. Still, he knew that he would have other opportunities to talk to her about it, later.

Steven turned to Jet and let out his trademark laugh "You really like Lion huh?" he said as he approached them "Oh yea, look at this!" his hand moved to Lion's mane right above Jet's head and it entered it. Steven's hand was in his the pocket dimension for a couple of seconds before he took it out, along with a can of juice.

Jet stared at his arm go into Lion's mane and back out. If she could show any expressions, Steven knew she'd likely be staring in awe. But then he felt Jet's cold hands around his wrist. The black gem forcefully pulled Steven's hand toward Lion's mane in what seemed more like desperation that pure curiosity.

"Hey Jet, wait a second." Steven tried to saw but her grip was strong enough to pull him.

The moment his hand entered the pocket dimension, Jet's body melted and surrounded Steven's arm. Before the boy could react, Jet rushed into Lion's mane, entering it through the opening created by his own touch.

"Jet!"


	9. That Which Was Missing

"Jet! Jet! Can you hear me?" Steven desperately called out into Lion's mane in a feeble attempt to catch her attention but obtained no response.

The large pink feline looked back at the young boy with his usual bored expression and Steven responded with a look filled to the brim with worry. He had never seen another gem, or anyone else for that matter, go into the world inside Lion's mane. Then again, none of them had tried doing it while connected with him in some form. There was, however, still a question that remained, why did Jet suddenly enter Lion's mane like that? He had to find out and there was only one way to do it.

The half-gem took a deep breath and dove into Lion's mane himself, landing on the pink field on the other side. Not wanting to waste any time for he knew that he wouldn't be able to hold his breath for long, Steven immediately started looking around for the small black creature. However, Jet wasn't really that hard to find, for she was the only black being standing on the hill beneath the pink tree.

Steven rushed toward Jet as fast as his legs could take him and by the time he reached her, the boy noticed that she seemed to be digging for something underneath his mother's Mr. Universe shirt. He reached out and grabbed Jet's arm but she ignored him and pulled her arm free. She seemed so focused on what she was doing that the rest of the world might as well not exist to her.

It was then that she suddenly stopped digging and just stared into the hole she had made. Curiosity got the better of Steven and he looked over Jet's shoulder only to find a small black box inside the hole. Jet slowly and carefully took the box into her hands and opened the latch. As she took off the lid, a very small pink bubble began to float up. For a moment even Steven forgot that he couldn't breathe and let out a small gasp, immediately covering his mouth the moment he noticed what he was doing. Inside the bubble was a small piece of a gem, one as black as the void.

Suddenly the lack of air caught up to Steven and he turned around to the pink field. He tried to leave Lion's mane but the lack of air was beginning to cause his strength to fade. As his lost track of where he was stepping and began to fall, an arm wrapped around him. Steven saw the black creature lift him off the ground and rushing to the field. At the last moment Jet's arms wrapped around Steven and she pushed him to the ground. The rift between the world inside Lion's mane and the outside was opened and the both of them dropped to the sand.

Steven immediately began gasping for air, filling his lungs with something all living beings from earth needed to survive and while it brought a bit of pain to his chest, it also felt amazing to be able to breath-in once again. He looked up to see what Jet was doing and saw her standing in front of him. His eyes widened when he noticed her popping the pink gem with her finger and then giving Steven one last look. Steven had never seen Jet's mouth open, he didn't even know she had one but her face began to split in half and she opened a black fang filled mouth, swallowing the gem piece without any hesitation.

Jet's body suddenly began to release an intense with light, her dark body vanishing amidst the blinding rays and forcing Steven to narrow his eyes. The Jet's body shrunk at first into a small ball of light but then began to take shape. In an instant a tall and slender humanoid silhouette was formed with a black gem on its forehead. A second after what seemed to be clothing was formed and the light went from white to black. Finally the light dispersed and a whole new being dropped to its knees before Steven.

Steven stared in shock and awe as the gem slowly stood up. She seemed to be almost as tall as Garnet but her frame was much more slender. Her skin was a flawless dark shade of gray while her hair was completely black like the gem on her forehead. The hair was long but tied in a braid that even over her shoulder could barely reach her waist. Her clothing consisted of a black strapless top that showed her midriff, a long flowing skirt that reached down to her ankles of the same color, with a slit on the left side that nearly reached the middle of her thigh and finally a long sleeveless coat that reached as low as the skirt with a popped collar. The gem opened slowly opened her eyes and stared down at Steven with her black irises.

"Jet?" the boy asked nervously as he stood up and Lion stood by his side, glaring up at the new gem.

"Where…" the gem looked at the boy and then at the area that surrounded her with confusion clearly all over her expressions "Rose was…no…what are these…" she reached up with her hands, grabbing her head in pain "What are these memories…not mine!" she shouted.

Steven took a step forward and reached out to the gem. She opened one of her eyes and stared down at the boy as if trying her best to recognize him "Do you…know who I am?" he asked nervously.

"No…yes…what? I don't know!" the gem said still clutching her head "These memories, they're not mine…but they feel mine…" she looked at the boy's worried expression and for some reason her heart sank "Wait…you…Steven?" she asked.

The boy's smile could not be wider at that moment and the gem was taken aback by his reaction, feeling a certain warmth from witnessing his joy. He moved his hands closer to her and she let down one of her own to meet his.

"I'm sorry Steven, I'm just…trying to process all of this." she tried to explain, but the boy looked worried again "Memories I built with you, they feel like they are from someone else but at the same time they are so familiar." she looked him in the eye and still felt worry from him "Don't worry, It's already starting to stabilize." she paused and smiled "We fought together. Made a great team, right? I'm Jet and I wasn't whole but thanks to you freeing me, I am…me, again."

The boy cheered at the recollection of the memories they shared and she let out a soft giggle as if his joy was contagious. The fun, however, would not last long for Pearl's voice was heard calling Steven's name from behind Jet. When they both turned around, they saw the Crystal Gem standing in a fighting stance with her weapon already out.

"I knew it!" Pearl roared "I knew from the beginning that this would happen! You were just using Steven to help you regenerate!" the gem shouted.

Jet's first reaction was to look back at Steven and when the boy tried to interfere, she moved a hand in front of his face. Her eyes shifted back to Pearl but she met the Crystal Gem with a somber stare, angering the latter.

"Hello to you, Pearl." she said in an incredibly calm tone with a hint of disdain in it "I believe I have no obligation to explain anything to you."

Pearl clicked her tongue "There it is, acting above it all like always." the bird beak nosed gem commented before pointing to Steven "Steven, get away from her right now."

"What? Guys, come on! Let's all just relax, OK?" Steven shouted but it fell on deaf ears.

"Stop pointing your weapon at me, Pearl." Jet threated.

"Or what?" Pearl glared, her spear still ready to strike.

"Or I'll make you." Jet's own shadow, something she did not have in her broken form, began to slowly expand under her.

"Hey!" Steven suddenly jumped between the both of them "There's no need to fight, we're all Crystal Gems, right?"

"No! She's not!" Pearl responded with anger and spite "Not after all she's done."

"I'm leaving." Jet said, turning to Steven and ignoring Pearl "Coming, Steven?" she asked, holding out her hand to him.

Pearl suddenly jumped in the air, over the young boy, as if reacting to Jet's hand nearing Steven. The Crystal Gem aimed her spear at Jet's chest, showing no hesitation whatsoever. Jet, in turn, quickly sunk into her expanding shadow, avoiding the attack. The moment Pearl landed inside the large circle of shadows, Jet silently emerged from the darkness behind her. The black gem's hands reached out for Pearl head but stopped when Steven called out her name. Jet glanced at Steven, seeing the boy stepping into the circle to meet them.

The distraction nearly cost Jet the match as Pearl immediately spun around with her spear. The edge of the blade just barely nicked Jet's neck as the gem pulled back. Pearl did not stop her assault and quickly aimed to stab Jet but this time, it was Steven who intervened. The young boy jumped between the two with reckless abandon and summoned his shield, blocking Pearl's weapon. Almost on instinct Jet reached out and wrapped her arms around Steven's body.

"Hold your breath." she instructed him to him and sunk into the shadows with Pearl's shouts in fading in the background.

Steven soon found himself in Jet's own dark world, this time with Jet embracing and carrying him rather than joining with him. He couldn't breathe, like usual, but for some reason Jet's body seemed like the only heat source in that cold place. A few seconds later, Jet emerged from the shadow of the Fish Stew Pizza restaurant allowing Steven to take a couple of deep breaths.

"Where…auf…are we going?" Steven asked but instead of an answer, Jet told repeated the same line as before and sunk into the shadows again.

A few seconds later, Jet jumped out of the shadow of a tree and let Steven down. She immediately began looking around in search for any trace of the Crystal Gems but when she found none, she seemed to relax.

"Alright, you can take a breather here for a moment." she said turning to Steven "Are you alright?"

"Yeah…no…wait…"Steven said, short of breath.

Jet's eyes widened and she immediately dropped to her knees next to him, inspecting the boy thoroughly "You're not alright? Feeling anything other than shortness of breath? Of course, you're freezing!" she took his hands, joined them and placed her own hands over them "That was stupid of me, I'm sorry. I keep forgetting that the shadows are too cold for you." as she spoke, Steven saw a different side of Jet than the one when Pearl was around.

Jet was acting quite nurturing and worried about him, reminding him a little of how Pearl got at times when something out of the ordinary happened. It felt like a completely different gem than the one who acted cold and somewhat spiteful toward Pearl. He liked this Jet, the other…not so much.

"No, I mean…I'm fine!" Steven said, yet he didn't move his hands as he was enjoying the warmth "But why are you leaving like this? We could talk to Pearl and—" his words were interrupted when Jet leaned forward, placing her gem to his forehead. It was exactly the same as when Jet was in her broken form and he could feel the same warmth from her gem, only this time it extended to his whole body.

"Good, normal body temperature." she noted "I should have gone inside your house and gotten your jacket…maybe if I just pop back for a moment…" she turned around but Steven quickly grabbed her hands, making her turn back to him.

"I'm fine." he repeated "Why are we here?" his insistence made Jet release a sigh.

"Steven…" she paused a moment to think "I just didn't want to deal with Pearl and the others. I don't…like overly complicated things and I have a feeling the other gems won't be accepting my return very easily." she shrugged "You saw Pearl…then again we never got along well to begin with."

"Why?" the boy asked almost instantly.

"Huh?"

"Why didn't you like each other? They told me you didn't have many friends." he said, remembering Pearl and Garnet's description of Jet during the First War.

"Of course they would say that." Jet sighed but then looked down at Steven as he looked up expectantly and she frowned "Does that look mean you want me to elaborate? I'm right aren't I?" Steven nodded enthusiastically "Fine…"


	10. Voices

Jet sat down next to the tree, pressing her back against it while Steven excitedly sat cross-legged in front of her. The young boy's eyes were filled with expectation. Stories, especially those relating to gems, were something he absolutely loved to hear and the chance to know more about Jet from the gem's own mouth was a huge bonus.

"Where should I begin…" she mumbled to herself, bringing a finger up to her temple while pondering on the issue "What did they tell you about gems in general? You know we're not from here, right? Do you know what a kindergarten is?" she asked the boy.

"Yea." Steven nodded though he didn't look too happy talking about such a place "It's where gems make other gems. I've been to one a couple of times."

"What? They've taken you to one at your age!?" Jet suddenly flared up "That's just irresponsible of—" she stopped and took a deep breath, there was no point in scolding those that weren't even there to hear it "No, anyway…back home I was in communications and information management. My job was to keep tabs on the numbers, send out reports to my superiors and such. I know, exciting stuff right? But I was good enough at it to get by so I never really complained." she paused when the excitement in Steven had gone down a level, showing his interest in that part of the story "Eventually I was sent here, to Earth during the construction of the kindergartens. I was pretty much just one of many intermediates of communication between this planet and Homeworld."

"Did you know my mom before the rebellion?" Steven asked innocently.

"I had heard of her, but our worlds were too far apart. I was just a little Jet in charge of writing and sending reports while your mother…well…she was Rose Quartz." even Steven noticed the slight frown on Jet's face when talking about his mother but let it go for the time being "Before the rebellion I had started to observe humanity. At the time they were incredibly primitive but there was a certain something to the way they lived their short lives that I quickly became enamored with. Compared to us gems, human lives end in the blink of an eye, yet they managed to live happier and more fulfilled lives in those short years than any gem I had known. It was…beautiful."

Jet moved a finger down and touched the tree's shadow. The darkness began to shift and change, taking different shapes according to her words. This made Steven's eyes grow wide in his awe. While Jet narrated, the shadows presented simple visual aids.

"When the rebellion started I joined to protect this world, to protect humanity. I know what some of the other gems thought and your mother's all-encompassing love but I just wanted to learn more about humans while keeping them safe." Jet's eyes looked down at Steven as he admired the moving shadows and a soft smile formed on her lips "That's not to say I didn't see the flaws that humans had, but it was that flawed nature that further drew me to them. As such, most of my time was spent with humans. Regardless of where my missions took me, I would always seek the nearest gathering of humans and watch over them whenever possible. The more I observed, the more I envied them…but also the more I admired them." Jet noticed Steven's head perk up and hesitated to continue, allowing the boy to speak.

"You're like what they told me about mom, you loved humans a lot." he spoke innocently, but was met with a poke to the forehead from Jet's finger.

"Please don't compare me to her, your mother's so called 'love' was always something that annoyed me greatly." Steven seemed confused and slightly hurt, but she continued "As far back as I remember your mother had always looked down on humans. She did love them, but it was never any different than how humans loved their pets. I heard the way she spoke of them, how they were funny and cute little beings that she loved playing with. She and others called it love, but all they felt was pity. None of them understood humans nor made an effort to do so, there never was any respect for them. They were always the poor primitive and defenseless inhabitants of this planet. Disgusting..."

Suddenly it hit Jet like a brick, she had lost herself and was spouting negative things about the young boy's mother. No matter how much she disliked certain aspects of Rose, she also knew how much those words could hurt him. Her eyes focused on him and she noticed that Steven was completely lost in thought while carrying a sad expression. She was not aware, but the young half-human was remembering his father's stories about his mother, how it felt like she talked down to him, especially during the fusion story. He was realizing that Jet might have had a point and that somewhat depressed him.

"But you know? Were it not for Rose, the rebellion would have never started so regardless of the reasons, of how she saw the ones she wanted to protect…the fact that she was a hero that protected humanity will never change. If there's still life on this planet it is only because she saved it." she tried to comfort the boy as best she could, yet did little more than garner his attention again until an idea lit up "And the simple fact that you exist is proof that Rose eventually grew to love humans…real love, as equals." she smiled and the boy perked up a bit "Half-human and half-gem, Steven you are the ultimate show of love between a human and a gem…I have no idea how Rose pulled it off but honestly, I'm kind of jealous. Maybe I'll ask her when things calm down."

Steven's smile turned into a frown almost instantly and he began to fidget with his fingers "My mom…gave up her physical form to have me. She's not around anymore." he solemnly said.

Jet's eyes widened in realization of what she had just said, watching the very obvious emotions displayed on the boy's face. Her first instinct were not comforting words but to reach out to him. Her arms wrapped around Steven, surprising him, and she pulled the boy to her lap.

"Uuh…Jet?" Steven asked but was immediately shushed by the gem.

"No talking, hug time now. Only hugs allowed." she said in a gentle tone while resting her chin on his fluffy hair.

It took a moment for Steven to process what was happening, but when he did his arms moved under Jet's and hugged her back. Neither of them said anything, Steven simply buried his face in her chest while Jet gently brushed his hair. It was only after a few minutes that one of them spoke again.

"So many things happened, so many things have changed…it's a bit overwhelming." she commented while still hugging the boy.

"I'll help." he plainly said.

"Thank you, Steven." she smiled and hugged him tighter "You really are a kind boy."

Steven's grip weakened and in response so did Jet's. He pulled away from the gem a little bit and looked up at her. Jet gave him a gentle smile but could tell that something else was on his mind. Her hand moved to his cheek and her forehead touched his.

"I have a feeling you want to ask me something, go ahead." she said.

Steven hesitated for a bit, feeling the warmth from her gem but eventually said what was on his mind "Why did you start absorbing gems?"

Jet's eye twitched and she immediately pulled her head away from him. Steven was startled by her sudden reaction and by the way she looked at him in horror. Jet slowly pulled away from him and stood up, using the tree for support. The boy also got to his feet but with eyes filled with worry.

"I'm sorry! You don't have to—" he began but stopped when Jet grabbed her own shoulders and looked away from him.

"I wanted to hurt them." was all she said.

"Hurt who? Homeworld? Why?" Steven asked.

Jet said nothing for moment but then turned to face Steven. Her look scared him, the sudden shift from the gentle and kind expression to one filled with hatred and malice was enough to make him take a step back "I wanted to hurt them, like they hurt me. I wanted them all to feel the same pain I felt." her words were as dark as the shadows she controlled and Steven began to worry not for himself, but for her.

"Why? What did they do?" Steven asked, but right as he finished, a voice called out to him.

"Steven!" it was easy to recognize it as Garnet's voice, coming from above.

Both Steven and Jet looked up, seeing Garnet grabbing a branch with her already armored hand. Suddenly something shot at Jet and wrapped around her arms and chest, a purple whip. Their eyes immediately shifted down to the wielder of the weapon and saw Amethyst standing a few feet away. Then another voice called out and Pearl grabbed Steven from behind, pulling him away from the fight.

"Steven! Are you alright!?" Pearl screeched as she lifted him off the ground and away from Jet.

"No! What are you guys doing!?" Steven shouted, trying to squirm away from Pearl's grip but she held on tightly this time, making sure not to let him go as she ran in the opposite direction of where he wanted to be.

Steven watched Jet as she did him. The last thing he saw of what was happening was Garnet dropping down on Jet, fist first, causing dirt and dust to rise up from the impact. Pearl didn't stop until she reached the edge of a cliff overlooking the sea. From there Steven could see Beach City and the boardwalk not far, meaning that he and Jet had not traveled very far in the first place.

"Pearl! Why do you keep attacking Jet!?" Steven shouted angrily, finally getting free from Pearl's grip.

"She kidnapped you! Who knows what she's planning!" Pearl retorted, her hair a mess.

"Because you wouldn't listen!"

"Steven! I was being cautious! You don't know how Jet was during the war, she could have been after your gem all along!" the volume of her shouts matched his and were only dwarfed by the occasional explosion of force in the distance.

"We were just talking! If Jet wanted my gem, she could have taken it any time she wanted! But she didn't!" he turned to face the direction they came from but Pearl quickly grabbed his arm.

"Steven, you don't know that!" Pearl responded.

"I do!"

"She absorbed me and tried to do it to Rose! I won't let her do that to you too!" the gem shouted and Steven's head immediately turned with shock.

"What?" he asked confused.

Pearl released his arm, seeing how he stopped trying to leave and turned her head, her hands shaking. It was clear to the boy that Pearl was quite perturbed from just thinking about it.

"It was…horrible. When Jet absorbed me, even if it was only for a few moments I could hear it all…hear them all, all the gems she had absorbed." she dropped to her knees and moved her hands to her ears "So many voices, crying out. They were angry, desperate, grieving, mad and in pain…all of those voices, screaming at me and no way to make them stop. If it weren't for Rose…I…" she didn't continue, instead Pearl just hugged Steven tightly "I don't want you or anybody else to go through that."


	11. Farewell

As Pearl rushed Steven away from the battle, Jet looked up toward Garnet while the crystal gem dropped down for an attack. Garnet could easily see Jet's glare but, even behind the shades, met it with a glare of her own. The armored fist nearly made contact with Jet, however the shadow gem jumped away in Amethyst's direction. She knew that her fighting ability alone was not up to par with gem warriors but Amethyst's whip made it impossible for her to escape the situation.

While the impact from Garnet's fist on the ground lifted dust and debris, Jet used her momentum to dropkick Amethyst. The hit was clean and it sent the purple gem flying back. Jet had expected her to release the whip but surprisingly Amethyst held on to it tightly. The moment the shorter gem's feet touched the ground she pulled her whip up and created a charged whiplash. The hit created an explosion that freed Jet but sent her flying toward Garnet. With no control over herself, Jet could only move her arms to try and block Garnet's punch.

Garnet's hit was powerful, it felt like being hit by a giant boulder. The force sent Jet through one of the thinner trees and skipping through the ground until she came to a complete stop. While not having taken enough damage to retreat to her gem, Jet knew that she had taken too much damage from those attacks. It was painful to even move, much less stand-up, yet she still slowly got to her feet and did her best to not lose her balance and fall back down.

"You've got a lot of nerve pulling that stunt with Steven! I was a fool for ever letting you stay near him!" Garnet shouted as she walked over to Jet, fists clenched tightly and a face twisted in anger "You took advantage of his kindness to trick him into putting your gem back together and then you kidnap him!? How dare you!" Jet didn't move, silently following Garnet's movements while Amethyst lagged behind "Back then I couldn't go anything while you absorbed even your own allies for your twisted goals, but I won't let that happen again. What you do is spitting on all that fusion stands for, all that we stand for. I won't let you hurt anybody any longer, especially not Steven!" Garnet stopped a mere foot from Jet, pulling her fist back for another punch, when Jet finally spoke.

"Have we met?" she coldly asked.

The words were perfect for setting Garnet off as she grit her teeth and swung her fist at Jet with all her might. Jet took advantage of the wild swing and ducked under it. The dark gem's palm shot up and touched Garnet's chest. Almost immediately Jet's body began to lose form as she forcefully merged with Garnet, surrounding the Crystal Gem in darkness. As Jet finished merging with the gem, creating a black layer around her body, Garnet began to trash around wildly. Normally Jet was able to take control of a gem's body without that much effort but for some reason this gem was fighting back harder than any other.

"I see…" Jet said using Garnet's mouth to speak "…a fusion. This makes things more complicated." Garnet's fists collided wildly with the trees and the ground, destroying the area around her.

"Garnet!?" Amethyst cried out in shock as she saw Garnet struggling to keep control but not knowing what she could do to help.

"I can't fight you like this…" Jet said as Garnet's swings became more labored and sluggish "…sorry about this." she finally said.

"No!" this time it was Garnet's voice that came out as Jet's darkness began to split, along with Garnet's body.

There was a sudden explosion of smoke Amethyst's eyes grew wide in horror. When the smoke cleared, Garnet was no longer there but instead Ruby and Sapphire lay on the floor, unconscious. Jet was also there next to them, on her hands and knees gasping for air. The gem did not need to breath but what she did had been so taxing that her body was exhausted. She raised her head to look at the two gems on the ground and then at the purple one that was still standing.

Amethyst's face morphed from shock to anger as she took out a second whip. The purple gem's weapons became charged with energy as she aimed to strike Jet down with them. Before the attacks hit, however, Jet quickly sunk into her own shadow and completely avoided the explosion the impacts created. Amethyst remained on guard, waiting for Jet to resurface but after a while, there was no sign of the shadow gem.

"Ruby, Sapphire!" she shouted recalling the two halves of Garnet and rushed to them.

As Amethyst reached Sapphire, she noticed that the blue gem was already awake and mumbling something. At first Amethyst had trouble hearing but when she moved her ears closer, she finally heard the words "behind you". The young gem turned around and saw Jet, standing on Amethyst's shadow and a hand already gripping the gem's head. Jet forced Amethyst face to crash into the ground and dug a knee into her back.

Jet said nothing as Amethyst tried trashing around while threatening her. She looked up and saw two seemingly unsteady and exhausted gems rise to their feet, the red one trying to shake off the fatigue. Neither of the two gems moved, however, for Jet began to slowly sink Amethyst's body into the shadows.

"Don't move or I'm locking her inside." Jet coldly and calmly threatened the two gems.

Suddenly, a voice called.

"Jet?" Steven stood behind Pearl a few feet away from them.

Jet turned to look toward him with a happy smile on her face, feeling reassured that he was safe. Her smile faded immediately after laying her eyes upon him. The boy was grabbing on to Pearl with fear in his eyes. He didn't look excited or happy to see her but instead she felt actual fear coming from him.

"What are you doing!?" the boy called out but was held back by Pearl.

Jet opened her mouth but not words came out. She looked around again at the scene as if trying to find something that would help explain herself. Broken trees and destroyed ground, two hurt gems forcefully unfused and the purple one already half sunk into the shadows. All she had done was defend herself, fighting the same way she had always fought during the war. Jet could never beat gems that were made for fighting in direct battles but she had always managed to survive and complete her missions by using these tactics, taking advantage of surprise attacks and underhanded moves. Nobody, not even Rose, ever complained about her methods. This time was no different, in her mind she had only protected herself.

"Steven…" she said, taking a step back and away from Amethyst who immediately got to her feet and flipped away, next to Ruby and Sapphire "I was just—" she began but was interrupted by a much louder Pearl.

"See!? That's what she does! She explores gems' weaknesses and then takes them over!" the bird beak nosed gem shouted with her spear's tip aimed at Jet.

"She tried to take over Garnet and when it failed, she forced her to unfuse!" Amethyst barked aggressively while readying her whip.

"You attacked m—" Jet tried speaking up but Amethyst snapped her whip at her, causing the gem to stumble back and use a tree as support to remain standing "Wait, Steven I—" she stopped when her eyes met with Steven's. The boy looked confused and that confusion seemed painful to her, like he was struggling with himself.

Jet took a step back, the sun shining brightly above her through the trees. Amethyst lifted her whip and Pearl pulled back her spear but Jet ignored them, instead looking toward Steven. Jet smiled at the boy, trying to give the boy the nicest smile she could. His eyes grew wide, as if realizing something but when he looked up, Steven saw Pearl's spear flying and Amethyst's whip snapping. Before the weapons hit, Jet was gone, sinking into the shadows but not coming up again.

oOoOoOoOo

A week passed since Jet's disappearance. After the gem had vanished, Steven had a chance to talk with Ruby and Sapphire, but their reunion was not as happy and exciting as they once thought it would be and Garnet was back together soon after. During that time the gems put all their efforts into finding Jet's whereabouts. Steven, on the other hand, had what can only be described as a lackadaisical disposition. While the others searched, he lazed around his room, occasional meeting with Connie and his father but always seeming distant.

"En garde!" Connie suddenly called out, swinging her practice sword down at a distracted Steven.

"Garden? Wow!" Steven suddenly reacted, summoning his shield at the last moment to block the sword "What? Connie, what're you doing!?" he said looking confused.

"Come on, perk up a bit!" the girl said, circling around him and swinging her sword a couple of times while he blocked the blows with his shield "If talking to you won't get you to stop mopping around, then maybe a little training will!" she jumped and swung down, catching Steven off guard again, yet this time he summoned his bubble to block the attack "Hey! No fair!"

"Oh! Sorry!" he said, making the bubble that surrounded him vanish "I'm sorry Connie…it's just, this whole thing with Jet…I don't know."

The boy felt conflicted still, not that he didn't care for Jet but rather because he did care despite all he had heard from her. He had rarely ever seen Pearl in such a state as back on the cliff, like she was still haunted by the experience and then seeing Jet forcefully make Garnet fall apart, threatening to lock Amethyst away in a world only she could access.

"Steven…do you hate her?" Connie asked, putting her sword down and kneeling in front of him.

"What? No!" he shouted before catching himself and looking to the side "It's just, complicated." Steven sat down in front of Connie, looking down at the ground.

"Is it really?" she asked with what seemed to him, a very unconvinced expression "Seems simple to me."

The boy looked up at Connie in confusion "I don't get it…" he said, scratching his head.

"Well, from what you told me Jet was very dangerous a long time ago, right? She did terrible things to other gems and even Pearl." Connie said, recalling the conversation she had with him the day after Jet left "But did you see a monster when you were alone with her?"

The question stunned Steven, causing him to stare at his friend without any idea of how to answer her. She did have a point, Jet never once tried to intentionally hurt him, quite the contrary, she felt incredibly warm and nurturing whenever the other gems weren't around.

"Even if she did something evil in the past, she—" Connie began but Steven suddenly stood up, causing her to stop mid-sentence.

"She must have had her reasons!" Steven announced with fire in his eyes. Connie couldn't help but smile as she saw his usual self return, that determination and positivity she adored "We need to find her, before the others do. I want to ask her properly this time. I'm going to ask her why did it and then we'll all come back and have a sit-down with everyone." he took a deep breath and smiled "Jet isn't evil, I want the others to know this too."

"Great! Let's do it!" Connie jumped to her feet while cheering, but then suddenly dropped her arms and cocked her head "But we don't know where to find her."

It was like all of Steven's enthusiasm drained away. Not even Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl were able to locate her, not to mention that considering Jet's background and abilities, she could easily make it impossible to be found.

Then he remembered something she said.

"Jet said that the world had changed too much and that she felt overwhelmed." he said, speaking more to himself than to Connie "The only place that hasn't changed was…"

The two kids looked at each other and spoke in unison "The Kindergarten!".


	12. Jam and Biscuit

Pearl and Garnet were out in their unrelenting search for Jet while Amethyst was left in charge of watching Steven. The trio had set up a rotation where either Pearl or Amethyst would aid Garnet in the search and the other would remain with Steven for they feared Jet would try to kidnap him once again. All this, of course, despite Steven's cries that Jet would never hurt him. Pearl had grown obsessive during the few days since Jet disappeared, more so than her usual self. Whenever it was her turn to guard Steven, she would stay by his side all day with her weapon always at the ready. At night she would set up spotlights to make it easier to spot suspicious shadow activity, but in turn making it harder for Steven to sleep. Amethyst, on the other hand, was much more relaxed, far more relaxed than Steven had expected. Of course she would still do her job but she also gave Steven much more freedom than Pearl.

"We need to find a way to distract Amethyst and get to the warp pad. Once we're there I can warp us to the Kindergarten." Steven told Connie as they began plotting their great escape "If Pearl comes back then there's no way we'll be able to sneak away from her." it certainly didn't help that gems didn't need to sleep, allowing them to keep a constant eye on him.

"Where's Amethyst now?" Connie asked while looking around.

"Probably up in the house eating." the boy responded.

"She probably is, can't resist a good sandwich." Steven and Connie both looked at each other in surprise, as if hoping for confirmation that the other had just spoken, instead a purple owl landed on Steven's shoulder "You guys should really learn to plot quietly." the owl said as it morphed into Amethyst with a grin on her lips.

"You were listening?" Steven asked with a crestfallen look.

"Every bit of it." she let out a laugh and her ears grew three times larger than her head "Can't keep secrets from me!"

Steven couldn't help but frown, Connie mimicking his action. If Amethyst knew of the plan then there was no way for them to sneak past her because she would start keeping a closer eye on Steven or worst yet, tell Pearl. To add insult to injury, she heard about the place they thought Jet would likely have gone to, meaning that if she were to tell the others, they would go ahead of him and bring down any chance of a peaceful resolution with Jet down to zero.

"Come on, let's go." Amethyst said, returning her ears to normal and turning to face the path leading up to their home.

"Huh? Where?" Steven and Connie asked in confusion.

"To the Kindergarten! Where else?" Amethyst frowned, seemingly not too pleased with having to state the obvious and delaying things "I wanna be back before Pearl and Garnet get back home."

"Wait…you want to go with us?" the boy asked as he approached the purple gem "Why? I thought you hate Jet too."

Amethyst let out a sigh and started scratching her head "Look, I got no problem bopping her if I need to and I probably will. What she did to Garnet made me really angry." she paused to look Steven in the eye, but then shrugged "But I don't know her, everyone else seems to know about Jet more than I do. She didn't hurt you and you say she isn't bad so I can't really say I think she's bad either. I don't have those bad memories that Pearl has because I wasn't there." she turned and started walking toward the house "Besides, I know how it feels to be considered a bad guy even if you ain't one. It sucks." she raised her hand without looking back and signaled the two kids to follow "Let's go."

Steven and Connie remained in place, watching Amethyst in awe for a moment, before turning to each other and smiling brightly. Without hesitation they jumped on the purple gem, laughing and thanking her. Amethyst struggled to push them away but in reality she couldn't help but show a big smile of her own.

oOoOoOoOoOo

Connie watched her surroundings with a purely dumbfounded expression. The Kindergarten was not like she expected, even after hearing stories about the place several times before. It was a grim and eerie place with a heavy atmosphere. No life to be seen anywhere, only rows of holes on the ground and tall creepy looking machines. Was they stepped out of the warp pad, Connie couldn't help but grip her sword tightly.

Steven immediately began looking around the place, showing that the atmosphere already had little effect on him. Seeing the broken machine in the distance, knowing the entrance to where they first found Peridot and later the gem clusters did cause a slight pain in his heart, but there was no time to worry about other things.

"Jeeeeet!" the boy shouted as he walked around.

Unlike when they searched for Peridot, Steven hoped that if Jet were to hear his name she would just reveal herself to him. Meanwhile Amethyst seemed to focus more on the holes that littered the area, searching inside most of them. Connie opted to search with Steven rather than being by herself, to protect him of course.

"Jeeeet!" they both called out but received only silence as a response.

As the two began feeling discouraged, they suddenly heard a sound like a low growl. When they turned around, Steven saw a familiar but highly unwelcomed being. Grabbing onto the holes in the wall was a large monster with multiple long arms and six tails flapping about, each with a spear tip. It was the same monster Steven and Jet had fought in the temple before, but it didn't make sense for he saw the gems bubble the monster's gem back home. Unlike the one in the temple though, this one was completely black, including its gem.

"Connie! Watch out!" Steven shouted as he jumped to the side, grabbing Connie and narrowly avoiding the monster as it came crashing down on them.

Steven knew that if this monster was anywhere near as powerful as the first, then it would be impossible for him and Connie to beat, he didn't even know if Amethyst could do it. There was, however, no turning back…because he was determined to find Jet and no monster was getting in his way. Steven quickly turned to face the monster and summoned his shield while Connie drew her sword and got into a fighting stance. They nodded at each other and focused on the beast.

The monster let out a powerful roar and swiped at the duo with one of its large hands. Steven immediately lifted his shield and Connie jumped on it, using the pink disk as a trampoline to jump even higher. The swipe passed and while Steven ducked under it, Connie flew over it and headed straight for the monster's face. With her sword at the ready, she swung toward the creature's eyes but seemed to miss as she felt nothing but air. With a surprised look on her face, Connie began to fall back down, being caught by Steven who immediately formed a bubble so they could land safely on the ground.

"Sorry, I missed! But let's do it again, I know I can get him!" Connie roared with determination as they landed.

Steven nodded and shifted his eyes to look at the monster. The dark creature suddenly began beating its chest like a gorilla while letting out an ear-piercing screech. The two kids were forced to cover their ears with how loud it was. When they looked up again, as the sound stopped, they saw the monster swinging all of its arms, aiming to trap them between its palms and squish the two kids.

"Connie!" Steven shouted as he aimed his shield at the monster.

The young girl flew into the air and placed the sole of her feet onto the surface of the shield again. This time, Steven formed a bubble around himself, both to block the attacks at him and to propel Connie toward the monster with even greater force. Connie shot up toward the monster's face again, speeding through the air like a cannonball. Steven braced himself for impact while Connie aimed the tip of her sword toward the monster, both displaying glares filled with determination and courage.

Yet, they felt nothing. When the monster's hands were going to impact Steven they just went through his bubble as if there was nothing there. Connie's sword also felt no resistance as it went right through the monster, including her whole body. The both of them were surrounded by darkness as they were literally inside the monsters. Connie, still being mid-flight, suddenly felt the weight of gravity upon her, causing her to fall from a great height and at high speeds toward the ground. This time, however, it wasn't Steven who caught her but something else entirely.

When Connie looked up at her savior, as it carried her in its arms, she saw a tall and slender person with dark gray skin and black hair. Her eyes immediately looked back and saw the large monster still standing but frozen in place. She then caught Steven, walking right through the monster's hands like they were made of air.

"Connie!" Steven shouted, but then he realized who was holding Connie in its arms and smiled brightly "Jet!" he shouted while rushing toward the two of them.

Jet let out a sigh while lowering Connie to the ground "Are you hurt?" she asked the girl.

"N-No Ma'am…" Connie said, mouth agape as she stared up at Jet.

"Good…" Jet said as she raised her hand to both Connie and Steven's foreheads and flick them hard, causing both to stumble back while holding their heads "What were you thinking trying to fight a monster by yourselves!?" she shouted angrily "If that thing was real you both could have gotten seriously hurt!"

"What? Real?" Steven asked, rubbing his forehead and turning back to look at the monster still frozen in place.

"That was an illusion I created with my shadow Steven." Jet informed them, while waving her hand at the monster. The creature's body began to melt into the ground, turning into a circular black hole in the ground and immediately moved under Jet's feet "I was trying to scare you away…who in their right mind would fight that thing?" she asked while frowning at Steven.

"You did!" Steven responded.

"Wha!? I…" Steven's response caught her off guard for a moment, realizing that he was right and she had fought the same monster by herself while in her broken form "I-I'm an experienced soldier! You're just children! There's a world of difference Steven!"

"Riiiight…" Steven grinned at her.

"What?" she asked, trying to act coldly but instead, received a big hug from the boy, causing her cheeks to turn even darker "Steven!" she mumbled in surprise.

"Steven!" Amethyst's voice suddenly interrupted the tender moment, as the purple gem stopped a few feet away with her weapon already in hand.

Jet's expression immediately turned somber and serious. With a hand she carefully pushed Steven away while with the other she began changing her shadow's shape. The two gems glared at each other, unmoving and unflinching for a couple of seconds, before Connie and Steven stepped between them with their arms wide open.

"Both of you, stop! There's no point in fighting!" Steven shouted as loud as he could, his voice echoing through the large and empty kindergarten.

"Yeah! Amethyst, didn't you say that you didn't want to fight!?" Connie asked the purple gem.

"I'll fight if she gives me a reason to!" she responded.

"Bringing human children to a Kindergarten? What were you thinking!?" Jet shouted angrily at Amethyst, causing the purple gem to growl in anger.

"Jet! Stop it!" Steven shouted this time, causing Jet to look back at him "We're safe and we can handle ourselves just fine. Plus, Amethyst isn't here to fight, she wants to talk just like us."

Jet stared into the boy's eyes for a few moments, trying to measure his honesty but as per usual couldn't find even the slightest hint untruthfulness within them. Her vision then shifted to Amethyst who slowly began lowering her whip, yet kept glaring at her. With a sigh, Jet waved her hand and the shadow beneath her shrunk until it became normal.

"Fine, let's talk then." she finally said.

Steven's face contorted with pure joy as he looked from Jet to Amethyst and finally at Connie, both ending up smiling at each other. Amethyst also sighted and shrugged her shoulders, the whip in her hand vanishing.

"What did you want to know?" Jet asked, already expecting Steven's answer, which she dreaded immensely.

The boy turned to her and assumed a serious expression that didn't fit him at all in her opinion "We want to know what really happened, why did you start absorbing other gems?" he stared straight into her eyes.

After a moment of hesitation, Jet released a sigh "Very well…"


	13. The Fairy's Daughter

A shadow entered a cave through a small hole in the wall and slowly began to expand, eventually forming a large circle on the ground. From it a pink bubble started to emerge, revealing Steven, Connie and Amethyst to be packed inside while Jet held them up with her hands. The four of them left the shadow and it quickly shrunk back to its normal size under Jet. With a wave of her hand, two crystals lit up the cavern revealing it to be filled with books, seemingly hundreds of them.

Connie and Steven couldn't help but stare at the sight before them in awe while Amethyst made a quick compliment on how messy the whole place was. The books were stacked on top of each other in no particular order or system, obviously having been dropped on the spot left there. The two kids rushed to pick up some of them and began reading titles out loud.

"This is amazing, there's all kinds of books here!" Connie commented while picking up two of them "The Tale of the Red Puma!" she read out loud and then turned to the other "Advanced Bio-genetic Engineering!" she looked down at another by her feet "How to talk to people…huh?"

"Connie! She's got the whole The Spirit Morph Saga! Special edition versions with the rare illustrations!" Steven shouted back and Connie quickly jumped to his side, flipping through the books in excitement.

"Yes, humans have developed quite a lot since last I saw them. It's quite refreshing to see how much they have grown through their literary works." Jet said as she moved to the back of the cave, sitting down on an empty spot against a wall and between two large piles of books.

"How did you get all of these?" Steven asked as she walked over to her with a book titled 'How to teach your cat new tricks'.

"I stole them." she flatly said, prompting a loud laugh from Amethyst "You can take whichever you want, I've read most of them already."

"In a week!?" Connie shouted, but Steven stepped in front of her.

"You stole them!?" he brought his hands to his head "Are you sure this is ok?"

"Yes? I don't really have any human money." Jet seemed somewhat confused by Steven's worry.

"But this is…wrong! You shouldn't steal things." hearing him speak, Connie started to slowly put down the books in her hands and quietly approach the boy.

"Steven, I doubt humans will miss a couple of books from random places." Jet said.

Steven was about to open his mouth but Amethyst wrapped her arms around both his shoulders and Connie's "Yeah yeah, stealing bad! Didn't we come to listen to some story?" she asked, pushing the two to sit down while she did the same.

"Alright fine…but we'll talk about this later!" Steven proclaimed with a finger pointing upward.

There was silence for a few moments. All eyes were trained on Jet who in turn felt like she just wanted to dive back into the shadows and be done with it. However, just looking at the three, she knew there was no two ways about it and let out a sigh.

"Alright, for you to comprehend everything, I'll have to tell you a very old…human fairy tale." She began and waited for their approval.

"But we want to—" Amethyst began but Steven placed his palm over her mouth and told her to shush.

"This is the story of the Fairy's Daughter." her hands moved as she spoke and her shadow began to crawl all over the wall behind her, forming a small shadow theater to match the narration "A long, long time ago there lived a huntsman, his lovely wife and his beautiful two daughters. One day, when the huntsman was out trying to catch his dinner, he found an unusual…flower. This flower was small and had black petals, something he had never seen before. The man took the flower, thinking that it might not have any monetary value but that he could give it to his daughters as a gift. Later that night, he placed the flower on his youngest daughter's hair. The baby had been quite weak and sickly since birth and the huntsman had taken the flower as a sign from the gods, that it would protect her."

Jet had a solemn expression as she spoke, her eyes never wandering from a single spot on the ground in front of her as if she was recalling the whole story in her mind as she narrated it. The shadows on the wall seemed to be stuck in the same scene the whole time she paused, the scene where the huntsman picked up the baby with the flower in her hair.

"A week passed…and then tragedy struck." the scene in the shadows finally changed "The country the huntsman belonged to was at war with another. When the invading army passed by the huntsman's village, they left nothing in their wake. The soldiers were like beasts and despite the huntsman's best efforts to protect his family, they were all slain. As the soldiers were about to harm the baby, however, the flower in her hair began to shine a bright light. From it came a fairy with black wings. After witnessing the destruction the men had caused, the fairy used her magic to…scare them away." Steven and Amethyst did not seem to notice, but Connie caught a glimpse of Jet clenching her fists tightly "When they left, all that was left was the baby. Now, the fairy was faced with a little dilemma. On the one hand, her kind had been caught in an old struggle with evil witches and she had to defend the world from their dark magic…but at the same time she could not leave the baby alone for she would never last through the night. The fairy tried very hard over the next few days to find someone that would take care of the baby, for a good home while disguising herself as a human. Sadly, the country had fallen on hard times and nobody would take the baby in. To the fairy, leaving the baby to die was never an option…thus she came to a final conclusion."

The shadows changed from a ruined and desolate area to what seemed to be a flower field. Jet's body seemed to relax a little bit when she paused and finally looked up, however her eyes did not meet any of her listeners' but she instead stared at Steven's belly for a moment. Eventually she went back to looking at the ground.

"The fairy went to the Fairy Queen and begged her for time." the shadows showed a large fairy with great wings and a long mane of hair "She asked the queen to allow her to leave the battle with the witches for a few years, which for fairies wasn't really…that long. The queen gave her the permission she needed and the fairy knew why, she knew what the other fairies thought of her, that she was an outcast and that they were likely glad to see her go. Still, for her it was perfect…she would have time to protect the child until the little girl was old enough to protect herself." the shadows shifted from the flower field to a small house "The next few years were…complicated for the fairy. Though she knew quite a bit about humans already, taking care of a baby was not something she was prepared to do. She would often disguise herself as a human and head to a nearby village, trying to gather information on how to take care of a baby. The humans thought she was an odd one, but eventually she began learning what to do." the small baby began to grow and change in the shadows "Fairies live for a very long time, a few years to humans are but a blink of an eye to them. Before the fairy realized it the baby had managed to grow into a fine young woman. The daughter was the most beautiful woman the fairy had ever seen and she felt something she had never felt before, the fairy felt proud. Not only was her daughter the fairest, but she was also naturally kind, never hesitating to help those in need with a smile on her lips. Yes, she was quiet and kept to herself, the fairy always blamed herself, believing that she had kept the girl away from other humans for too long…yet she never once complained. She loved her mother dearly and the fairy loved her back."

"Jet?" Steven meekly called out.

Jet's eyes focused and she looked up toward the boy, who had a worried look in his eyes. The boy pointed to his eyes, signaling to her that something was wrong. Jet raised a hand and felt something wet touch her fingers, quickly realizing that she had tears trickling down her face.

"Are you…alright?" Steven asked "We can stop if—" he began but Jet interrupted him with a forced smile and a wave of the hand.

"No, I'm fine. This story…it's just been a long time since I heard it." she wiped away the tears while Connie and Amethyst looked at each other awkwardly before returning to Jet "Now where was I? Oh yes, the girl had grown to a beautiful woman." she cleared her throat and continued "Soon young lady found herself a young man and they fell in love with each other. The fairy quickly realized that her time raising the young human would soon come to an end, that her job would be done. As talks about marriage began to surface, the fairy started slowly distancing herself from her daughter, in hopes of fading into a mere memory so that the girl could live her own life happily." Jet hesitated to continue, but did so anyway "The night before the wedding, the fairy gave her daughter her final goodbyes. Having never told the young woman about her true nature and past, she made up an excuse that she would return to her original country, now that the daughter would start a family of her own. They argued that night, the daughter not wanting the only mother she had ever known to leave and stormed out in anger."

The three of them noticed Jet's expression change and the images the shadows form becoming sharper and more aggressive looking.

"The war between the fairies and the witches had not ended, quite the contrary as it still raged on. When the fairy went after her daughter, she found her laying on the ground next a group of witches. Apparently, they had somehow caught wind of the fairy living with a human and went to capture her." her fists clenched tightly once again "With her daughter being held hostage, the fairy had no other option but to obey their demands. They forced the fairy to turn herself back into a flower, where she would not be able to resist them and in return they were to leave her daughter alone. When the fairy next awoke, the witches told her that the young human had tried to save her, that she took the flower and ran, but didn't get far…and that they were 'forced' to slay her." the shadow theater's images began to distort while Jet's lips formed into a smile, low and pained laughs leaving her "But it was all fine, for in her grief, the fairy discovered that she had an amazing ability. With her new ability, she escaped the witches becoming stronger as she did. A wonderful ability that allowed her to fight again, what else could she ask for? And thus she did…until her ability started running out of control, taking over her mind and driving her to madness. In the end, the Fairy Queen was forced to put her down…for she had become worse than the witches she so desperately wanted to destroy."

The shadows on the wall dissolved and returned under the gem. Jet pushed her knees to her chest and curled up, placing her forehead on them. Steven was clutching his chest while looking worried at Jet. Connie was sobbing in Amethyst's arms, who in turn simply remained quiet.

"I'm sorry…" Jet said weakly "…I should have warned you about the ending."

Steven jumped to his feet and rushed toward Jet, wrapping his arms around her neck as he gave her a heartfelt hug.


	14. Stubborn Gems

"She has to be somewhere, we can't allow Jet to roam around freely." Pearl argued as the two remaining Crystal Gems warped back home "Jet must be gathering corrupt gems at this very second and who knows how that will affect her." she spoke to Garnet as the fusion walked off the pad with a cool and calm expression.

"We'll find her." she stated plainly without a shred of hesitation "And when we do, we'll make sure she won't harm anyone any longer."

"Still…" Pearl mumbled as she moved down the pad and over to the kitchen "Steven! Amethyst! We're home." she called out "Do you want something to eat Steven? It's my turn to keep watch."

"They aren't here." Garnet said, standing in the middle of Steven's room.

"Hm? They must be down by the beach, I'll call them." Pearl said, moving over to the door and calling out at the top of her lungs "Steven! Amethyst!" but much like before, there was no response "Garnet! Something's wrong, they were told to stay close to the temple!" she said desperately to the taller gem.

"I'll go check on the boardwalk. You go see if Amethyst is in her room." Garnet ordered, wasting no time to rush out the window and toward town.

A few minutes later Pearl ran out of the temple while Garnet entered Steven's room. Pearl immediately grabbed Garnet's arm and looked up with wide and worried eyes, her hair a wild miss.

"I can't find them anywhere!" Pearl said and stared expectantly toward Garnet who answered by slowly shaking her head "Oh no! No! No! No! What if Jet got them!?" she grabbed her own head and paced away from Garnet.

"There were no signs of struggle and Amethyst would not go down without a fight." Garnet reassured the gem, but Pearl seemed inconsolable.

"She could have caught them by surprise, you know how Jet works! Not to mention that Amethyst never takes anything seriously!" the bird beak nosed gem paced furiously "What if she absorbed them? They could be trapped right now! Why did I leave!? Amethyst should have been the one searching, I should have stayed! Oh Steven!" she rambled on until Garnet's hands rested on her shoulders.

"Calm down, we'll find them." said Garnet, hiding her wild emotions behind a stoic face for Pearl's sake.

oOoOoOoOoOoOo

Steven had lost track of the amount of time he had been sitting next to Jet, leaning against the wall with her and holding the shadow gem's hand that whole time. The crying Connie had been comforted by Amethyst, the best way the purple gem knew how to do it despite her dislike for such situations. Connie had gone to the side, browsing through random books while Amethyst lay a few feet away with an unusually serious expression on upon her face.

"Are you OK?" Steven finally asked with a smile.

Jet's eyes focused and she turned to look at him, silently staring at the boy for a few moments as if she was seeing something else. Eventually her eyes softened and she gave the young man a tender smile "I am, thank you Steven." she released his hand but brushed Steven's hair with it "You know, your kindness…it reminds me of her. Though you're far more lively and sociable than she ever was."

"Hmm..." Steven stared at the gem for a few moments, pondering something "What was her name?" he asked innocently.

"Oh, I guess I haven't told you yet." Jet surprisingly let out a small laugh and leaned her head back, touching wall and looking up toward the ceiling "At the time I had no idea how to name human children and I never got to hear the name her parents had given her…so I just picked something based on her appearance, it seemed fine at the time." she paused and looked down at Steven "Amber, just like her hair and eyes."

"It's a beautiful name." Steven assured her.

Instead of a verbal thank you, Jet turned her body to him and placed her forehead upon his. Steven felt the same warmth coming from the gem as before. Upon seeing this, Connie blushed a little and looked back at Amethyst to see if the purple gem was reacting to it. The purple gem stood up and casually made her way to Jet. When the latter saw the approaching gem, she moved away from Steven and her face became cold and emotionless once again.

"What's your plan?" Amethyst asked bluntly.

Connie slowly put down her book and looked from Amethyst to Jet and finally to Steven. Steven slowly stood up but said nothing, simply staring at Amethyst.

"What do you mean?" Jet asked with an unmoving and unflinching gaze.

"I mean, what do you wanna do from now on?" the purple gem asked and crossed her arms "Are you gonna go absorb more gems?" she asked but Jet simply laughed.

"There wouldn't be any point. The war has long since been over, no Homeworld to fight anymore."

"There are a few Homeworld gems still around though." Amethyst stated which immediately caught Jet's attention.

"What? I figured Rose would have driven them all away by now!" the tall gem stood up, overshadowing Amethyst.

"It's complicated." Steven interrupted "There was this gem called Lapis, she was trapped in this mirror and when I set her free she went back to home. Then there was Peridot, she came in through the warp but then we destroyed it…then she came in with a ship and Jasper. Jasper's this big and mean gem that fought Garnet, but then fused with Lapis…but it's OK because Lapis took over the fusion to trap it and now we have a large ball of hatred somewhere in the ocean." he paused to see if he had told the whole story, then realized something was missing "Oh and Peridot is doing something with gem shards, fusing them together. It was really creepy."

Jet stared at Steven in confusion for a few moments, trying to piece together the whole story from the tidbits that Steven was quickly providing. Eventually she brought a finger to her head and asked the boy to start over, this time with a little more detail. Over the next few minutes, Steven explained all that had happened with the Homeworld gems.

"You're allowing Peridot to roam around freely!?" Jet asked Amethyst angrily.

"What!? We're doing our best to find her!" Amethyst roared back, taking clear offense to her tone.

"And a powerful fusion in the ocean…what happened to the Crystal Gems?" Jet grumbled while rubbing her temples.

"There's just four of us, there's only so much we can do, ya'know?" the purple gem stated, turning her head away with her arms crossed.

"Four? Just four!?" Jet bit her lip and gave Steven a side-glance before turning away "Rose, how could you let this happen…" she then turned to Amethyst "Please tell me you're not just diving randomly into the ocean…" but Amethyst did not respond, which was a response in its own way, prompting Jet to bring her palm to her face.

"I can talk to Lapis in my dreams! But she won't tell me where Malachite is." said Steven with a dejected look.

"You can…this is too much." the black gem let out a sigh "Look, I'll search for Peridot and this Malachite on my own." she said, prompting the three others in the cave to look at her in surprise "What? It's what I did during the war…part of it, at least. I'm sure I can find them before you do." Jet paused for a moment, before continuing "I'll find them and take care of this mess for you. You Crystal Gems just worry about more Homeworld gems coming back."

Amethyst growled, baring her teeth while shoving her face toward Jet's "Are you saying we should just stay put and let you do anything? We've been protecting Earth for over 5000 years!"

"Oh and what a great job you're all doing. A Homeworld gem running loose and a ticking time-bomb in the ocean." she looked back at Steven for a moment and noticed the way he reacted to mention of the fusion in the ocean "Plus, I can break fusions apart forcefully. What are you going to do if you find Malachite? Ask her nicely NOT to crush you?"

"Grrr!" Amethyst growled angrily reached a hand to her gem while her face twisted with rage.

Jet moved her hand and the shadows began to grow but Steven interrupted "Hey! Please, this is dumb!" he stepped between the two "No fighting! Jet, you don't have to be mean! You'll never make any friends if you act like that all the time." he then turned to the purple gem "And Amethyst, you know heard her story, Jet isn't bad so stop trying to fight her over any little thing! You have way to quick a temper!"

"Friends?" Jet looked down at the boy, confused.

"Temper!?" Amethyst, one the other hand, summoned her whip turned around while her weapon charged with energy. She snapped it toward the small hole in the wall and formed a new, bigger one "I can't stand being in this tight place!" she said, walking out of the cave through the new hole and taking a seat on the ledge.

"No discipline…" Jet let out the comment but Steven quickly scolded her "What? It's true."

"Be nice, the crystal gems are my family." he stated plainly.

"Well…I'm not apologizing." Jet said, turning away from the boy.

Steven looked back toward Connie who in turn simply shrugged at him. The walked toward each other and Steven let out a sigh.

"I don't know what to do." he complained "I just want them to get along."

"Jet doesn't seem like the type to get along with others." Connie commented "And all gems I've met have been way too stubborn."

"Guys!" Amethysts sudden shout interrupted the conversation, as she rushed back inside and turned to Steven and Connie "I just saw Pearl and Garnet!"


	15. Dark Wing

"Oh no! Oh no no no! Garnet is gonna kills us!" shouted Amethyst as she started freaking out and running around in circles "I mean, Pearl I can handle but Garnet is gonna be sooo mad!"

As Amethyst ran in circles like a headless chicken, Connie moved to the opening of the cave and looked over the ledge. Since they had come in through Jet's shadow, Connie had no idea of just how high up they were, but it seemed like Jet had made her humble abode near the top of one of the Kindergarten's tallest cliffs. Down below Connie could barely make out the silhouettes of Garnet and Pearl leaving the warp pad.

"Yeah, I see them too." she confirmed and turned back to face Steven "What should we do?"

The boy looked from Connie to the rambling Amethyst and then to Jet, who seemed rather calm despite how on edge the rest of them were. He opened his mouth to speak but Amethyst got in the way.

"We stay hidden in here! They will never find us and we can just go back when things cool down!" said the purple gem and Steven simply stared at her like she had gone mad "What!? Garnet told me to watch you and I brought you right to Jet, she's really gonna kill me."

"We'll go down and tell them the truth." Steven stated with clear intent in his eyes.

"What!?" Amethyst shouted.

"Pearl looks like she's on edge." Connie said from the entrance as she saw the figure of the thin gem running around frantically while Garnet walked around as calmly as ever.

"See!? There's no talking to Pearl! She's going all bonk in the head from just remembering what you did!" Amethyst's finger pointed up at Jet who seemed to ignore her and instead turned to Steven.

"As much as I hate to admit it, Amethyst is right. Those two won't be happy even if tell them the truth." Jet spoke with her usual cold and distant tone "Just tell them I kidnapped you three again, they'll be far more inclined to believe that."

"No! If I do that, they won't ever accept you!" Steven shouted, surprising Jet for a moment, before she returned to her detached demeanor.

"Indeed, but I have no need for their approval." she paused and forced a malevolent grin "It might actually be best that they keep thinking of me as this big evil gem. That way they'll be on their toes and maybe this time they'll be able to actually kick Homeworld gems out of this planet."

While Amethyst didn't exactly like both her tone and words, she was too busy worrying about Garnet and Pearl to actually come up with one of her usual crass retorts. Steven, on the other hand, didn't seem too pleased with Jet's acting.

"But you're not evil!" he shouted at the top of his lung without even noticing.

"Hmm…guys? I think they're looking this way…" Connie called out meekly, taking a few steps from the ledge and back inside.

Amethyst quickly rushed to the ledge, sliding across the ground and peeking down at the two other gems. Her eyes went wide when she saw the two climbing up the cliff with long leaps. Meanwhile, Jet grabbed Steven's hand and moved closer to Connie.

"I have an idea, Steven would you please make your bubble around Connie and yourself?" she said as she grabbed Connie's hand and placed it on Steven's "Trust me, OK?" she spoke while looking the boy straight in the eye but he hesitated.

Connie's hand squeezed his tightly and Steven's eyes wandered to her. The young girl seemed to be smiling and nodding. She didn't know what Jet had in mind but she knew Steven trusted the gem and that he should keep doing so. Soon Steven's pink bubble surrounded the both of them and Jet's hand moved to the top of it while her shadow enlarged and covered not just the sphere but also the distracted Amethyst.

"Listen Steven, you shouldn't care what others think about you. The only thing that matters is what you think about yourself." Jet did not wear her cold and distant mask as she spoke to the boy but rather the same nurturing and gentle expression she showed only him "As long as you know who and what you are, the rest doesn't matter." she gave Steven a smile she so desperately tried to make happy, but Steven saw the complete opposite "Goodbye."

With a word of farewell, Jet pushed the bubble down into the shadows. As she did, Jet caught a glimpse of Steven placing his hands on the bubble and shouting something but the moment the bubble was submerged there was only silence. The shadow gem then turned toward Amethyst and stopped next to her.

"If those two ever get hurt, I'll make sure to come back and make you three suffer immensely." she spoke to the gem who looked up confused.

"What are you gonna do?" the purple crystal gem asked.

"Change of plans, I'll be giving Homeworld some hell for a while." Jet never once looked down at Amethyst, instead keeping her eyes to the sky.

The purple gem opened her mouth to speak, but Jet lowered her hand and the shadows quickly swallowed her. At the same time as Amethyst was engulfed in darkness, Garnet appeared on the ledge. The shadow gem took a step back and watched as Pearl jumped up and landed next to Garnet. Both gems already had their weapons out and looked ready for battle.

"Jet! Where are Steven and Amethyst?" Garnet asked with a stern tone.

"Where are they, I know I heard Steven!" Pearl screamed frantically.

"You should really learn to be careful, anyone that knows how to work those warp pads could easily warp into Steven's room." Jet noted with a blank expression "Then again, that purple runt put up a good fight…"

Pearl was the first to charge, her spear aimed toward Jet's chest in hopes of plunging it straight through and forcing her enemy to retreat back into her gem. Instead, Jet stepped to the side and grabbed Pearl's weapon, pushing further forward and ruining Pearl's balance completely. As Pearl stumbled forward, Garnet had also initiated a direct assault and swung her powerful fist at the other gem. Jet quickly grabbed Pearl by her collar and pulled her back, taking advantage of her shot balance and placing the gem between her and the armored fist. Garnet's attack immediately stopped, a mere inch from hitting Pearl but Jet wasn't done. The black gem's hand shot toward Garnet from behind Pearl and the fusion immediately remembered the last time she had been touched by Jet and jumped back. Seeing Garnet retreat, Jet pushed Pearl forward and away from her.

"I see that the same trick won't work twice. Very good Garnet." Jet said with a cold stare "Pearl, you're letting your emotions get the better of you…shame."

"What did you do to them!?" Pearl shouted angrily, before a sudden realization came upon her and her expression changed into one of horror "You didn't…" her hand moved up to her mouth.

"Not yet…they are stuck in my shadow right now." Jet responded "I believe we can solve this amicably. I propose a trade."

"Who would bargain with you…you monster!" Pearl screamed, however Garnet stepped in front of her.

"Speak." she calmly said, not taking her eyes off Jet.

"My only goal is the destruction of Homeworld, I believe that would somewhat match your overall objectives of protecting this planet." Jet showed no emotion as she spoke and kept eye contact with Garnet "I'll be leaving this planet and heading toward Homeworld, I've absorbed enough gems already and one of them seems to have an amazing flight capability. It should be enough." the shadows twisted and shifted up her back and eventually formed a pair of folded jet black wings.

The Crystal Gems were shocked by the sudden appearance of Jet's wings but did not move.

"I'll be taking my leave without any further hassle, the children will be released the moment I'm gone." she cocked her head "Is that acceptable?" she asked and waited for their response.

Pearl opened her mouth to speak but Garnet spoke up first "Yes." she said and took a step back, pushing Pearl along.

"But Garnet! We don't kno—" Pearl began but the fusion stopped her with a whisper.

"I've seen it with future vision, she does keep her promise." she turned to Jet and watched as the gem casually walked to the ledge and opened her wings.

"…" Jet said nothing to the two gems before jumping off the ledge, instead giving them a short glance.

Pearl and Garnet watched as Jet plunged toward the ground at high speed, seemingly unable to fly. As her face was about to reach the cold, hard floor, she sunk into the shadows and soon after emerged from them, shooting into the sky with her wings wide open. The dark gem flew up with speeds matching her descent and soon became a fading dot in the distance to the two gems.

Moments after Jet vanished from view, Steven, Connie and Amethyst were projected out of the large shadows inside Jet's cave. As soon as they emerged, Steven's bubble came undone and released the two kids inside. Pearl made a mad dash for Steven while Garnet grabbed Amethyst's arm and helped her stand. Steven looked confused at Pearl as the bird beak nosed gem hugged both him and Connie tightly.

"Oh I was so worried!" she screeched "Are you two alright? Did she hurt you!?" she asked, pulling away just enough to get a better look at the children.

"Hurt? No!" said Steven as he frantically looked around "Where's Jet!?"

Pearl looked back at Garnet with a worried expression, but the fusion seemed calm "Jet flew away to Homeworld. She's gone." at these words, Amethyst raised an eyebrow and turned to look at the sky.

The young boy felt tears swell up in his eyes "What? But she said…I don't…" he felt Connie's hand grip his and he looked toward her. The young girl was smiling at him, giving him a nod though a single tear seemed to peek out of her left eye.

"It's alright now, she won't be bothering us any longer." Pearl said with a reassuring tone that made Steven force down the urge to yell out that she was wrong about Jet. Instead he broke down in tears.

It took them a few minutes to calm Steven down, especially because Pearl and Garnet had a hard time understanding why he was really crying. In the end they chalked it up to his kindness and sincerity even toward enemies as well as feeling relieved for being alright after what they assumed was a traumatic experience at the hands of Jet. The five of them moved back to the warp pad and soon they left the Kindergarten.

Not far from the warp pad, as the light from it faded away, something began to emerge from a shadow. Jet stood up with her eyes focused on the warp pad. Her eyes gave off a mix of worry, pain and sadness but soon she steeled herself, clenching one fist while waving her other hand. Her wings seemed to melt into the shadows, much like the illusionary monster that Steven and Connie had fought before. Jet took a deep breath and then turned her back to the pad.

"Now then, let's find these Homeworld gems." said the shadow gem as she walked off.

 **((Alright guys, this marks the end of the first part of From the Shadows. Thank you all for reading and reviewing so far, it really means a lot to me that people are actually reading and (hopefully) enjoying something I've written…you all have no idea how much it really has meant to me.**

 **I do not plan on giving up this story but I really do need a small break (I've been positing daily and its wearing on me), plus I need a little more time to plot out the next part of the story. Not to mention that I'm waiting for Stevenbomb 3.0 to see how the show's plot evolves and what parts I can incorporate into my story.**

 **That said, I'll be returning to this story before the end of the month for sure so stay tuned and again, thank you for reading.))**


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